PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS OF THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR
MAYKYAWOO ID: 5019427
ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY BANGKOK, THAILAND.
NOVEMBER 2009 PROPAGANDA ANALYSIS OF THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR
MAYKYAWOO ID: 50194527
A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURES MA-ELL
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ENGLISH (GSE) ASSUMPTION UNIVERSITY BANGKOK, THAILAND
NOVEMBER 2009 Thesis Title PROP AGANDA ANALYSIS OF THE NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR
Name Ms. May Kyaw 00
Advisor Dr.Katarzyna Anna Ancuta
Academic Year November 2009
The Graduate School of Assumption University has approved this final report of the twelve-credit course, EL 7000 Thesis, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (EL TIELL)
Approval Committee:
(Dr.Katarzyna Anna Ancuta) (Asso~f.D~ Subaneg) Advisor External Examiner
(Dr. Ste})heilCOilfon) Chairman PLAGIARISM STATEMENT
I hereby certify that all materials in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and acknowledged, and that no material is included for which a degree has already been conferred upon me.
MayKyawOo
Date: of/12 /ocr Table of Contents
Page No.
Acknowledgements 11
Abstract 111
List of Tables IV
List of Figures v
Introduction
Chapter 1: Domestic News 5
Referendum for the New Constitution 7
The Cyclone Nargis 16
The Tainted Milk Issue 20
The Saffron Revolution 23
Editorial Article Titles 28
Slogans, Exhortations and Advertisements 31
Chapter 2: News Concerning the International Community 36
United States of America 37
North Korea 45
China 47
Comparative Analysis of Media Bias 50
Chapter 3: Propaganda Analysis 60
Conclusion 85
Bibliography 87
Appendices 89 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Dr. Kasia Anucuta, for her support and guidance from the beginning to the end of the thesis. Without her encouragement and effort this thesis would not have been completed. One simply could not wish for a better or friendlier and more inspiring supervisor.
I would also like to convey my thanks to Dr. Stephen Conlon for his guidance and lectures on different methods of analyzing and reading texts and also for his invaluable comments and suggestions for this thesis.
Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone essential to finish this thesis, especially the authors of my reference books, Online Burma Library, and my family, involved in supporting me while I was writing the thesis.
ii Abstract
This thesis, entitled "Propaganda Analysis of The New Light ofMyanmar," examines
The New Light of Myanmar, a state-owned newspaper of Myanmar to discuss the possibility of the newspaper being a propaganda tool used by the powerful elite in the country to influence the perceptions of the readers by disseminating selected information which support the propagandists' causes. The thesis follows a
Propaganda Model developed in reference to Jowett-O'Donnell's Propaganda
Analysis Techniques (Propaganda and Persuasion). The data used in this thesis have been collected from the periodicals printed between January 2006 and August 2009.
This thesis argues that the newspaper can be used to influence the majority of people and that by reading a newspaper of a country, we can learn about the status of the freedom of the press in that particular country, the newspaper owner's policies towards other countries and local opposition groups, the newspaper's expectations and presumptions of the readers, and its objective of being a newspaper, that is, whether its purpose is to serve the reader by giving them relevant and useful news or whether it is used it solely as a powerful information disseminator presenting carefully chosen information or misleading information to control the audience's understanding of a situation in favor of the powerful elite or, in other words, the propagandist. iii List of Tables
No. Name of Table Page No. Weather reports before and after the Nargis cyclone. 18 1.
2. Frequency of editorial articles under different categories written 32 during the last four years 3. 34 Slogans and exhortations carried by The New Light ofMyanmar List of headlines concerned with the United States (The New Light 4. 55 ofMyanmar, January 2008)
5. List of headlines concerned with China (The New Light of 57 Myanmar, January 2008) 6. List of headlines concerned with North Korea (The New Light of 58 Myanmar, January 2008) List of headlines concerned with countries, such as Thailand, 7. 60 Vietnam, British, Pakistan, Germany, Iran, Brazil, etc. (The New Light ofMyanmar, January 2008)
iv List of Figures
No. Name of Figure Page No. 10 1. Vote "YES" slogan from 1 May 2008, NLM Another kind of slogan to support the Constitution from 1 May 2. 11 2008, NLM
3. A cartoon to support the referendum from 2 May 2008, NLM 11
4. A poem to support the Constitution from 2 May 2008, NLM 11
An announcement refusing to postpone the referendum due to the 5. 12 national tragedy
6. An announcement related to the referendum 12
7. An announcement made for the dates of the referendum according 13 to regions 8. Vote "YES" announcement 13 9. Another Vote "Yes" announcement 14
10. A cartoon depicting all ethnics marching for the same destination 14
11. Referendum results announcement 16
12. Referendum results announcement with percentages 16
The headline and pictures showing the soldiers helping to clear the 13. 20 roads after Nargis (5 May 2008)
14. Notification concerning milk contamination 24
One of the common, ifrare advertisements in The New Light of 15. 36 Myanmar
Another usual, if rare type of advertisement found in The New 16. 36 Light ofMyanmar
A cartoon found in The New Light ofMyanmar on January 2, 2007 17. 42 (page 7)
18. A cartoon found in The New Light ofMyanmar on January 2, 2008 43
19. A cartoon found in The New Light ofMyanmar on January 3, 2008 43
v 20. A cartoon found in The New Light ofMyanmar on January 9, 2009 44
The headline for the editorial article which appeared on 27 March 21. 68 2006
Tables shown in the articles written in The New Light ofMyanmar 22. 74 on 27 March 2009 and 2008
One of the many slogans included everyday in The New Light of 23. 77 Myanmar
24. One of the slogans which appears on some days in The New Light 81 ofMyanmar (26 February 2008) 25. A headline of an editorial article in The New Light of Myanmar on 81 21 November 2007 26. A testimonial made against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on 15 Nov 81 2007 27. Another opposing testimonial by supposedly the Shan State 82 delegates (The New Light ofMyanmar 25 Nov 2007)
vi Chapter (1): Introduction
The first issue of a newspaper in Burma was published on 3 March, 1836. The newspaper in question was The Moulmein Chronicle. It was also the first English newspaper to be published in Burma. It was published by American missionaries with the aim of educating the Burmese people who were under British rule at that time.
Seven years after publishing The Moulmein Chronicle, Burma had the first Burmese language newspaper, The Religi.ous Herald. It was also produced by the missionaries with the aim of spreading Christianity. Apart from being published in the Burmese language, that newspaper was printed in Karen, the language of one of the major ethnic groups in Burma. After the emergence of The Moulmein Chronicle, many other newspapers appeared in print in the territories which were under British. Some of those whose records can be found include The Rangoon Daily Mail, Moulmein
Free Press, Daily Review, British Burma Review, Advertiser, Bassein News, Arakan
News, Pegu Gazette, and The Rangoon Times.
Although numerous newspapers were printed at that time, they were usually short-lived and lasted for not more than one year on the average, because of the ongoing wars between the British and the Burmese monarchy. In 1874, Burmese
King Min Don started the first official newspaper to be produced under Burmese rule,
The Mandalay Gazette. After 1885 when Burma lost her independence, both Burmese and English language newspapers appeared under different newspaper press owners but they were all short-lived as the times then were turbulent and the owners would frequently leave or sell the newspapers to others. The period after independence also
[1] produced a substantial amount of newspapers but they did not last long and went through name changes under different governments. As a result, at present there are two official newspapers in Burma, The New Light of Myanmar and Kyemon (The
Mirror). Both newspapers are produced in Burmese and English at the same time.
Although they are different newspapers, the contents of the newspapers remain very similar from the headlines to the editorial articles, which is the reason why only The
New Light ofMyanmar has been chosen for analysis in this thesis.
Looking back at those old newspapers can be an interesting way to study history other than reading history books. Patterns can be found concerning the newspapers' choices and omissions of news items. These newspapers also bear witness to the evolution of language and people at the same time. Official newspapers produced by governments can serve as their mouth-piece which relays their perceptions of the world and from reading these we can see how the governments wish to present themselves to the world. At any period in history, newspapers serve as an information provider to the mass public and because of this power to reach out to a large amount of people who want information, newspapers can sometimes be used as a tool by a powerful elite group to disseminate information to the readers which will benefit them more than it does the readers. The term "powerful elite" used here can represent several groups: the newspaper's owner, the government that can control what the newspaper writes about, and the advertisement companies that also have their preferences. The main argument of this thesis is that The New Light of
Myanmar does not serve as much as an information provider but rather as one of the
[2) propaganda tools used by the powerful elite in Burma to disseminate ideologies beneficial to them.
The New Light of Myanmar has been chosen for the thesis for two reasons.
First of all, as a newspaper it is more influential and appears to have more readership than Kyemon. Secondly, there are complete sets of The New Light of Myanmar
available on the website created by the Online Burma Library which can provide us
with a substantial sample for analysis. At this point, let me briefly recount the history
of The New Light ofMyanmar to explain the amount of materials which is used in the
thesis. The New Light of Myanmar started running in 1914 under the title, Working
People "s Daily and became nationalized in 1969 when its name was changed to the
present name. It has been running for 20 years as a daily and because of that there is
an abundance of information to be analyzed. Due to a time constraint, this paper
focuses on the four most recent years of data only accumulated from The New Light
ofMyanmar, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.
The thesis has been organised into three chapters focusing on domestic issues,
international issues and the analysis of the propaganda, respectively. The first chapter
will present a selection of news items taken from the domestic news section of the
newspaper. The objective of this chapter is to explain how the news are presented,
chosen and omitted to serve the purpose of the newspaper owner. The second
chapter's objective is similar to the first, except for the fact that the data presented
will be taken from the international news section. The third and the last chapter is the
analysis part where some of the data presented in the previous chapters will be
expanded upon and combined with additional material comprised of the editorial
(3) articles written on the Armed Forces Day. This data will be cross-examined against a propaganda model developed in reference to the Jowett and O'Donnell's
(Propaganda and Persuasion 275) propaganda analysis method.
The method has been chosen because the techniques used by Jowett and
O'Donnell include 10 flexibly designed divisions which are meant to be used in observing the media, analysing the media and the audience's responses to the media.
The techniques have not been created for one type of media only but are suitable for analysing more kinds of media, and Jowett and O'Donnell prove this by using all their techniques in their four case studies. The flexibility of the techniques is an important factor as this thesis considers one medium only, i.e. the daily newspaper. Another important benefit of using the Jowett-O'Donnell's techniques is that although originally, the authors grouped the techniques in certain order, the order can be changed and some techniques can be omitted and still can serve as a sufficient framework for this thesis.
Because the Burmese media are quite unique, analyzing them following other people's techniques can be difficult. The selected techniques used in this thesis for the sake of the analysis of The New Light of Myanmar and its propaganda methods have been selected as the most beneficial for the task. While there are obviously many other prominent techniques to analyze propaganda in the news, such as for instant the one developed by Chomsky and Herman in Manefacturing Consent: The Political
Economy of the Mass Media, or the method produced in Jacques Ellul's Propaganda and Persuasion, these methods are more appropriate for analyzing a genre of media system different from the Burmese media.
[4] For example, Chomsky and Herman's method of analyzing media bias focuses on the financial dependency of newspapers and how this affects newspaper policies, content and preferences in the news coverage. This method can be more efficient if we apply it to analyzing one continuous topic only. This thesis does not focus on one singly issue, as its objective is to show that propaganda is present in all facets of the newspaper. Similarly, for Jacques Ellul's techniques, the main focus is the idea of propaganda and its motivation for existence. Ellul does not provide his readers with a how-to-analyze-propaganda model; instead he focused on bigger concepts, such as the necessity of propaganda, the role it plays in the social system, the ideology behind
it and its effects and relation to democracy and public opinion. Ellul's idea of propaganda has been used in the last chapter when political ideology is analyzed in
one of the steps of analyzing propaganda instead of using it as a technique to analyze propaganda itself.
Before making these analyses; it is essential to clarify the terms involved in
the main argument of the thesis. In Propaganda and Persuasion, propaganda has
been defined by Jowett and O'Donnell as a deliberate, systematic attempt to shape
perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behaviour to achieve a response that
furthers the desired intent of the propagandist (269). A similar definition is given by
Jacques Ellul in Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, who describes
propaganda as a set of methods employed by an organized group that wants to bring
about the active or passive participation in its actions of a mass of individuals,
psychologically unified through psychological manipulation and incorporated in an
[SJ organization ( 61 ). The understanding of propaganda as used in this thesis has been
derived from these two definitions.
In this thesis, propaganda is defined as a deliberate attempt to shape the
understanding of an individual or group of people by manipulating their process of
thoughts and directing their behaviour to achieve a response that supports the intent
of the propagandist by disseminating information carefully selected to support their
purposes through different mediums such as the press, radio, television, film, posters,
slogans, billboards, education, internet, etc. depending on how powerful the
propagandists are. It is quite obvious that the definition of propaganda in this thesis
leans towards the purpose of propaganda. In this thesis, propaganda in the newspaper,
the possible intentions of the propagandist and the purpose of the propaganda is
analyzed. Because the propagandist wants to achieve certain results in the described
communication process between the newspaper and its readers, the definition of
propaganda in the thesis highlights the potential purposes of the newspaper.
Although different types of media are used to get through to the public, the
one which will be studied is the printed press, specifically the newspaper. The
newspaper as a disseminator of public information is expected to fulfil a number of
criteria. Among these criteria are: providing the news in a timely manner, with
proximity to the readers and their lives, and also giving priority to the news which
have prominence and interest to the local people (Itule and Anderson 14). Whether
The New Light ofMyanmar achieves these goals will be discussed in the thesis.
Last but not least, when discussing the rationale for this thesis it is hard not to mention the fact that in the eyes of the world Burma is undoubtedly a nation in
[6) trouble and its government's intent and its limitation of the freedom of press have been highly questioned. I write this thesis in hope that it will prove to be useful to anyone who is interested in knowing more about Burmese newspaper standards and the way the newspaper has been used under the rule of a powerful elite. This thesis also aims to highlight the significant role newspapers play in a totalitarian state where the government-run newspaper serves as the official mouth-piece of the government.
(7) Chapter (2): Domestic News
Before spelling out the main focus of this chapter, let us describe the general format and layout of The New Light of Myanmar. On an average day, the newspaper has sixteen pages in total and about thirteen of them feature both domestic and international news. From the thirteen pages, around four to five pages are devoted to domestic news and the rest are international news. Editorials always make up either one or two pages. The remaining pages are shared between the weather reports, TV and radio schedules, government slogans, sports news, and, at very rare times, a few advertisements and condolences can be seen. The decisions as to which news is to be excluded or included in the newspaper are supposedly taken care of by the Myanmar
News Agency (MNA), a sector under the Ministry oflnformation in Burma. The New
Light of Myanmar, the longest-running newspaper in the country has been published since 1914 and it became nationalized in 1969 during the Socialist party rule. It is printed daily in both English and Burmese in the Berliner format (17 in x 11.5 in). It was originally known as Working People's Daily and the name was changed in 1993 under the present government.
This chapter focuses on analyzing the news concerned with domestic affairs.
News reports on issues such as voting processes, natural disasters, multiethnic issues, everyday news of the representing bodies of the country and relationships with other countries will be brought into the spotlight to show The New Light of Myanmar newspaper's perspective on news reporting.
[8] Although there is no universal method for a newspaper to follow when choosing which news are to be printed, there are some criteria which newspapers across the world comply with, a set of standards that a newspaper should follow in order to be a newspaper regardless of who owns the press agency. The criteria in question include timeliness, proximity to local readers, conflict reporting starting .. from the development of an issue, whether it is being resolved or not and who are the people involved, eminence and prominence to see whether events reported involve people who are noteworthy, and are the stories of human interest (Itule and Anderson p.20). As regards language and word choice, it is a common agreement between journalists across the world that the news should be "objective" and the language should be neutral. The main objective of this chapter is to build an argument for the thesis by examining The New Light of Myanmar against a propaganda model to support an opinion that The New Light of Myanmar is very likely one of the tools used by the political elite of the country for their political agenda and to convey their views to the possible readers, the general public in Burma and to scholars and those who want to learn more about the country and its government.
This chapter, relating to the news concerned with domestic affairs only, is divided into three sections. The first section deals with the timelines issue and the referendum voting topic is examined in detail. In addition to the news concerned with the referendum, related slogans and comic strips will also be discussed here. The second section will focus on the newspaper's duty to inform the people of health threats and in this case, the tainted milk issue is discussed. The last section addresses the newspaper's coverage of freedom of assembly in Burma by focusing on news
(9) stories relating to the September Saffron Revolution. In additional to these three main sections, slogans and exhortations present in The New Light of Myanmar everyday together with the rare advertisements are also included in this chapter.
Referendum for the New Constitution
According to The New Light of Myanmar, Burma (Myanmar) has been eagerly anticipating the moment when the National Convention will be able to draft a new constitution since April 24, 1992, when the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) made the announcement. A committee was formed to plan the convention but it had to suspend its activity several times, the latest stint being the departure of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Burma's main opposition party, in 1996.
In 2003, SLORC, became SPDC (State Peace and Development Council), announced
"The Seven Steps Road Map to Democracy" and, as the first step, it started urging people to participate in the national referendum. Since then The New Light of
Myanmar has started to include slogans motivating people to vote "Yes" in the referendum in both Burmese and English language editions of the newspaper.
This chapter analyzes the slogans and news related to the referendum published in the month in which the voting took place, beginning with the day of the referendum to the day the results were announced. What is of specific significance here is the fact that during the time the referendum was held, Burma was hit by the cyclone Nargis in the lower delta region near the Irrawaddy River. Although international organizations such as the United Nations estimated the death toll to have
[10] risen over 63,000 (USAID, 14 Aug 2008), The New Light ofMyanmar headlines were still seen urging people to vote in the referendum without revealing the actual number of deaths. The information below show the The New Light of Myanmar's coverage relating to the referendum issue.
Topics relating to referendum issue from headlines and other pages from The New Light ofMyanmar
• 1st May, 2008: The headline of the newspaper on that day is as follows:
'To approve the State Constitution is a national duty of the entire people today. Let us all cast 'Yes" vote in the national interest.'( page 1)
• Slogans seen inside the newspaper:
'Towards the new nation, Will ratijj; Constitution.' (page 7) 'We remain ever united whoever tries to divide us And will cast "Yes" vote' (page 7) 'To ratijj; Constitution Let's go to the polling booth' (page 8) 'For ratification of Constitution Let's go to polling booth to cast "Yes" vote' (page 8) 'For flourishing ofdemocracy Ratifj; Constitution' (page 9) 'Let's get democracy by voting at polling booth' (page 9)
• Smaller news articles which show the general public's acceptance of the referendum:
"Billboards set up in Yangon North District to hail Referendum" (page 8)
• On the last page of The New Light of Myanmar, the following slogans and catch phrases and a poem are printed:
Let us all * who are equipped with ardent patriotism, * who ch..-rish genuine independence, * who aspire perpetuation of sovereignty, • who loathe foreign interference and manipulation, and * who ofWpiit Rovernment with strli of colonialists, • •g__ '!'!Lii ijidi!iiitiiiiriii_iiiMhffilihlM Figure 1: Vote "YES" slogan from 1May2008, NLM
[11) .... Victory "ithiu reach • Democracy cannot hl· oar strong belkflt ts hy 01· Approval or lb< constttutlon adtien·d anan:hism Will ~ soon acblrv Figure 3: A cartoon to support the referendum from 2 May 2008, NLM • The last page of the newspaper remains unchanged with the same slogans but the oem has been chan ed to a different one. Wl'itten is the Statt- constitution In tht- interest of entire nation Not of any particula1· pt-rson Never to fall again undt-r subjugation Lt-t's vott- in favour Hlaing Note: 2 May is the day the cyclone Nargis struck the lower Irrawaddy delta sometime in the afternoon around 3 pm. • 3 and 4 2008: No publications were made, possibly because of the cyclone. • 5 May 2008: On the first page of the newspaper the announcement made by the government of Burma can be seen. This is a response to the comment made by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to postpone the referendum to fully concentrate on the 'national tragedy' (Bangkok Post: 5 [12) May 2008 ) The last page of the newspaper has reduced the number of slogans to only one similar to the ones used before: 'Let's go to the polling booth to cast vote.' Government of the Union of Myanmar issues Announcement No 1/2008 NAY PYl TAw. 4 May-TM • 6 May, 2008: One slogan, "Let's go to the polling booth to cast vote." is included on the last page of The New Light ofMyanmar. • 7 May 2008: The Commhsion fol' Holding the Refel'endum "ill hold the 1·efmndum on 10 M11y 2008 as Sfbeduled in all the states and dMsioos except the 40 townships in Yangon Dh'lsion and seven townships in Ayeyawady Dhision that ban been announced to remain the disaster-hit areas under Announcement No 512008 of the State Peace and Development Council of the l'.nion ofMyaoma1~ Figure 6: Announcement relating to referendum voting • The above statement can be seen on the first page of The New Light of Myanmar newspaper. It can be seen as an indication that it is so important for the government to get the voting process over with that the government cannot wait for the people to rehabilitate after the disaster. • On the same page of the newspaper, the following announcement is made for the general public. [13) Union of Myanmar Commission for Holding Refe1·endu1n Announcement No 8/2008 2nd "'·nxlng of K1uon 1370 :\IE (61\'.lny 2008) 1 The cOllUlltt.sWn bai announced that the Rfemidwn will~ Mldon 10 May 2008 for approval ofthedraftcon\titution oflb~ Republic oftbe Union ofMyMmar Howe-\-cr, due to the cyclooic storm 'NARGLS' tbac hit Myanmar on 2 May 2008, lhe Stat«! ~~ aud [)e-i...'t'lopment {'ounctl anuouuct!d Ayeytn\"ady, Yangon and Ba.go Di\·i&iom and Mon and K.a~in State\ as tN- affecRd 81'~a\.. 3 Now, \01lle to\vtl'\hips in the" di$tik':r-h1t areat ba\-e returned to uormaky ~ Stak' ~ace and Dt-velopment Council hereby rt'lrastt Announcement No S/2008 on 6 May :2009 that tbr followings tow~ remain u the affected nr~. (a) Ngaputaw, Labutta. Mawlamyin<~ Pyapoo. i!ogal<. Kyaiklllt awl 0.daye in Ayeyawady Division. -lling ''"""township>. (b) Tamway, South Okkalapa, Dagon (S (Aung Too) CballlWU\ Figure 7: Announcement made for referendum voting dates according to regions • 8 May 2008: The title of the editorial article reads: 'The Most Appropriate Constitution 2' (page 6). Other news concerning the referendum include 'MPT to issue three new stamps to mark Referendum 2008' (page 7). The usual slogan, "Let's go to the polling booth to cast vote" is inserted on the last page of the newspaper on that date. • 9 May 2008: Before the headlines there is the slogan urging people to not just vote but to vote "yes."Continuation of the same editorial article from the previous day is featured, 'The Most Appropriate Constitution 3' (page 4) • On the last page of the newspaper this slogan is printed again: Let us all * who are equipped with ardent patriotism, * who cherish genuine independence, * who aspire perpetuation of" sovereignty, * who loathe foreign lnterf"erence and manipulation, and * who oppose puppet government with strings of" colonialists, V<>TE "'•YES" for ratification of the ( 'onstitution. Figure 8: Vote "YES" urging announcement • 10 May 2008: On the first page of the newspaper: 'To approve the State Constitution is a national duty of the entire people today. Let us all cast "Yes" vote in the national interest.' (page 1). The feature article of that date is named "On the March to the Golden Land" (page 4). The article mentions the referendum. The last page carries the same slogan encouraging people to vote in the referendum. [14] Let us all * who are equipped with ardent patriotism, * who cherish genuine independence, * who aspire perpetuation of sovereignty, * who loathe foreign interference and manipulation, and * who oppose puppet government with strings of colonialists, V<>TE ""YES'~ for ratification of the Constitution. Figure 9: Another Vote "Yes" announcement • Another shorter slogan carrying a similar intent is placed at the bottom of the newspaper, 'To ratify Constitution let's go to the polling booth' (page 16) • 11 May 2008: The headline of the newspaper on that day shows the representing body of the country and his wife voting in the referendum: 'Senior General Than Shwe, wife Daw Kyaing Kyaing cast votes in Referendum for Approval of the Constitution' (page 1) • Referendum activities shown to be held in divisions and states of the country. 'Referendum for Approval of Constitution held in Mandalay Div' (page 2) 'Referendum for Approval of Constitution held in Kayin State' (page 2) 'Diplomats observe Bago Division Referendum' (page 2) 'Myanmar holds referendum for emergence of modern developed discipline jlourishing democratic nation.' (page 2) 'Referendum for Approval of Constitution held in Nay Pyi Taw' (page 2) 'Referendum held in 19 Townships ofAyeyawady Division' (page 2) 'Referendum for approval ofthe constitution held in Shan State (North)' (page 4) 'Referendum held in Kachin State' (page 4) Figure 10: A cartoon depicting all ethnics marching for the same destination [15) • This comic puts Nargis into the same category with the "internal and external saboteurs." It is odd because, whereas internal and external saboteurs, if they exist are made up of people and can be predictable to some extent, a natural disaster cannot be fully anticipated and it does not have an intention to sabotage the country and prevent it from reaching its goal of becoming a "peaceful, modern and developed" nation. A government that wants to gain people's support thorough a legitimate means frequently uses a time right after a natural disaster to show they care for the people. This, however, is not the case here so the motives of the government are highly questionable and it reflects upon the newspaper it owns and runs. 'Referendum held in Shan State (East)' (page 8) 'Diplomats observe polling stations in Bago Division (West)' (page 8) 'Referendum held in five townships in Yangon Division' (page 9) 'LPDR Deputy Defense Attache observed referendum in Taunggyi' (page 10) 'Diplomats conducted around polling stations in Nay Pyi Taw' (page 10) 'Referendum for approval ofconstitution held in Mandalay Division' (page 10) 'Referendum held in Dawei' (page 10) • The sentence below is a unique piece of news because this is the first mention in the newspaper talking about the mechanics of the voting process and it's hint at legitimacy by showing the international community's audience to the voting process. But the news article mentions neither the specifics of the voting process nor the details of how the votes will be counted once the voting period end. Therefore, here it is reasonable to ask whether The New Light of Myanmar have fulfil the duty of a newspaper and observations from the diplomats cannot be indefinitely translated to the fair and just voting because the newspaper fail to report on this issue any further. 'Diplomats observe vote casting, counting of ballot papers in Taikkyi, Hlegu' (page 10) • 12May- 14 May 2008: No mention of the referendum in the entire newspaper except for one slogan on the bottom of the first page, which says, 'Emergence of the State Constitution is the duty ofall citizens ofMyanmar Naing-Ngan.' (page l)[Naing-Ngan is a Burmese word meaning country] • 16 May 2008: The result of the referendum is announced on the first page of the newspaper together with the announcement concerning the cyclone Nargis. The two announcements are displayed side by side. The headline concerning the referendum states: 'Over 92 percent say "Yes" to Referendum' and it shows and explains about the number of "yes" and "no" votes together with the eligible number of voters. Other reports on the same issue includes a short news item named, "Commission for Holding Referendum holds meeting No 912008" (page 6) [16] • Another news item concerning the referendum is the article, "Referendum held in Kawthoung"(page 9). Again here, this news article questions the vote counting process because the results are already out yet a specific region is still voting. If all regions have not finished voting then • 17 May- 26 2008:'Emergence duty of the State Constitution is the duty ofall citizens ofMyanmar Naing-Ngan.' (page 1) • 27 May 2008: - -·--- ~--~-~~--- ·---·--·------92 .48 p<"'r<."ent app1·ove C:onstitution NAY PY! TAw. 26 Moy-The Commission for Holding the Rcfcrcndum ofthe Union ofMyonmartoday issucdAnnowiccmcnt No. 121200! :1a1ea 26 May, 2008. The full ll!Xl ofthe announcemmt is ""'folluw.: Union of Myanmar Commission for Holding the Referendum Announcement No. 12/2008 7th Waning ofKllsoo 1370 ME (26 May 2008) Announcement on results of the referendum held ln the whole country I. The rcfcrcwlum for "PP"""'l oftbe dtaft constitution of the Rcpublio of the Uoion ofMyonmar was held successfully in 278 townships ow Jf 325 townships in the whole oowitry on 10 May, 2008 and the oommission 811DOwtOCd the results of the n:fa:crulum with the Announccmco• No. 10/2008 dated IS May, 2008. In aocord with thoAnnounccmcnt No. 8/2008 dated 6 May, 2008, the referendum was held on 24 May, 200! in 40 toonships in Yangon Division and seven townships in Aycyowady Division that were hit hard by Cyolonc "Nargis". The oommissioc mnonnced the n:sults of the referendum held on 24 May, 2008 with the Announcemcot No. I li2008 dated 26 May, 2008. Figure 11: Referendum result announcement Over 92 percent in re1naining Tps cast 4"Yes" vote NAYP\1 TAW. 26 May-The-Co1U11tissio11fur Holding rile ReferendumoftM Uuion<.ifMyru.unartodny 1.si!Ued •.:\nnoonct'llle'lltNo. 1 L'200S dated 26 Mav, 100!1. Titrfull tt'.xtofthemJnouncemenr is as follows; Union of Myan1nar Conunisslon for Holding the Referendum Announcement No. 11/2008 7thWaulngoCKason 1370 ~IE (26 :\lay 2008) Announcement on 1·esults of the refe1-..ndnm held In 4 7 townships In Yangon and Ayeyawady Dhislons 1 The- refereudtun for approval of the- draft r.ous(itution Ctf the R.eyublic of the Uruon of Myanmar wa<;. held \tJCcesil'ully u1 278 tmvu'io!up;, out of 3 2:' tl1\\nr;lllps m ilie whole i."ouutry on lO May, W08 nod the corutm\si011 annowiced the 1~ul11i oftlte r~fere-ndum "\\-l.th the- Anri..nm{'erUE.'rlt No. 10/2008 dated 15 May ~OOB 2 Iu acrord with rhe-.Ari.nonncemeut No. &-200R dated 6 May, 2008 the1-Jerendwu was h-e.ld on 2-t May, .!OOS 11140 fowu~tp, in YauFOU Di\isioo and seven to\\'U\:lllp"> in A}-eyawady Di\·i.s1on that '""ere hit hard by c..,.'C'lone ··Na.rp-is"'. Tiie following is the l't">ulli of tl.e refenmdtuu: (a) Nwuberofet:.igible voters 4,SS0,393 tb) Nuanberoftho'lo"whoca~tvote 4.280.015 (9.l44p.M't'en0 {c) N~r ofthoit ivho can '-Yn.'\-oft 3,977,528 (9l.9J .f"'rceut) (d) Nmuber of thow- \Vho ca<:.t ·--.So'' \"ote .?56.~3'.?: { S.99 pert't!!Jltj (e-) Number of c.nnce-Ued \'"Of~ -16.25:> ( 1.08 pe1't'eut) The (Otum.1.o,;.siou hf'reby anncmi..:;e-'i that 3,977.:"28 of 4.280,CH5 Yoter\ ca;t '·Yf'~·· Yote. accountir-...@" for 91.93 pel\"'mr m 1he refet?O.dum held m 47 t0\\1l'>lupi- m Yangon and Ayeyawady DiVJ.'loiOn"). (Auu~Toe) Cltauman Conuim.-Hon fot Holdiu~ tlle Retere·ndum Figure 12: Referendum result announcement with percentages As we can see, the above table focuses on the events of May 2008 and the materials which were printed during that month. The materials gathered include [17] poems, editorial articles, comics and slogans which appeared in the newspaper during that month together with the announcement of the referendum results. The objective of this table is to show that even during a time of natural disaster the newspaper's focus does not lie in the natural disaster updates. Its focus is as we can see on the referendum as the voting was not postponed either. The priority given in The New Light of Myanmar here can be seen as equal to the government's priority. And this priority is to have the constitution rectified. Also, from reading the slogans, we can see that what the government wants is for the people to vote "YES," in the name of, "patriotism" and "nationalism" and not just to vote. From the slogans we can see that the government is very enthusiastic about the referendum and wants people to support it. But the slogans also show us that the people are not given any reasons why they should vote "yes" in the referendum. What is done instead is telling people that if they do not cast an affirmative vote they are not being patriotic and nationalistic enough. In effect this can .lead us to a conclusion that real opinions of the people do not matter. This fact challenges the newspaper's reliability and trustworthiness. Similarly, if we look at the pictures in the comics, we can see that they try to simplify people's opinions by making them say things such as, "We all corporate" and "We defend ourselves together." This is clearly an oversimplification of the diversity of people and their opinions. Lastly, the above table tries to challenge one of the major criteria used to evaluate a newspaper: priority. If priority is not given to the more important topic, then this newspaper's objective to serve as an information provider the public is greatly challenged. In the next section we will discuss The New [18) Light of Myanmar's coverage of some news with regard to their timeliness, and priority. Cyclone Nargis The following section deals with the way the newspaper reports natural disasters, disease . outbreaks and threats. This section will focus on The New Light of Myanmar's announcements before the cyclone Nargis disaster (2008). The table below shows the weather reports before the N argis Cyclone hit Burma. -·------·------+------+------·------·--- Weather report: The New Light Weather report: The New Weather report: The New ofMyanmar. 29 Apr 2008 Light of Myanmar. 1 May Light of Myanmar. 2 May 2008 2008 Table 1: Weather reports before and after the Nargis cyclone. On May 2, 2008, the Cyclone Nargis, a category 3 cyclone struck the Irrawaddy Division of Burma and then moved on to striking Burma's largest city, Rangoon with winds of up to 190 kph around 6:30 pm local time (Martin and Margesson. p.6). According to the Indian Metrological Department (IMD), the cyclone started forming since April 27th and on April 28th, IMD upgraded the storm into the Cyclonic Storm Nargis while it was located about 550 km (340 mi) east of Chennai, (19) India (Voice of America News online). Initially, Nargis was estimated to hit the Bangladesh region only but on April 29 the wind slowed down, on May 1 the cyclone intensified rapidly and on May 2 the cyclone reached its peaked winds of 215 km/h (135 mph). According to The Times, the Indian Metrological Department stated that they had given a forty eight hours warning to the Burmese agencies to prepare for the incoming cyclone (The Times online). The table above shows that The New Light ofMyanmar could have done more to alarm the general public about the natural disaster which was expected to happen in the country since the weather department also had known beforehand that it was going to happen. The lack of news about the cyclone resulted either because the newspaper was pressurised by the government to focus on the referendum only or perhaps it was due to a simple mistake of not getting the information on time as it was claimed. There might be other reasons involved but either way, the impression that the readers are likely to get is that the newspaper failed to inform the people about a natural disaster which might have saved the lives of some of those who died during the disaster. Next, we will discuss the media coverage after the Nargis cyclone. After taking a break from printing the newspaper for two days due to the disaster, The New Light of Myanmar resumed its publication on 5 May 2008. Nargis was in the headlines of the newspaper until 19 August 2008 and we will look at some of the news articles, editorials and pictures included in the newspaper during this period. [20) l\\o severe '\Otrnn~ wind and another storm in Yangon and neighbouring area~ Figure 13: Headline and pictures showing the soldiers helping to clear the roads after Nargis (5 May 2008) If we look at all the headlines of the news articles on 5 May, 2008, we can notice a pattern. The main headline reads "Relief measures taken in Nargis-hit areas," the next headline being, "No sever strong wind and another storm in Yangon and neighbouring areas," with the picture of soldiers removing the fallen trees on a street in the old capital of Burma. Another picture under the same article shows a street in downtown Rangoon (Yangon) with moving vehicles. The next headline reads "Two ministers provide cash and kind to storm victims of Mawlamyaingyun," together with pictures with the caption of, "Yangon returns to normalcy after clearing of debris caused by cyclone Nargis" and so on. Some of the remaining articles have titles . such as, "Measures coordinated for normalcy of communication services," "Roads re-cope with vehicles," "Relief aids arrive in Hainggyi," and "External and domestic flights will operate regularly beginning 5 May." As it can be observed from the two pictures provided, we can understand that the government wants to make use of the natural disaster to prove that the authorities are helping the people by printing pictures showing soldiers helping clean up the debris and trees blocking the roads. Such pictures can serve as a way to tell the (21] international community that the government is sending out its soldiers to help the civilians. They can also demonstrate to the people inside the country from regions which were not affected by the cyclone that the government cares in compensation for not postponing the referendum. Other pictures show the downtown area of Rangoon with traffic and people on the roads suggesting that the situation has returned to normal. This urgency might be explained in terms of the need of the government to show to the international community that it was not necessary to postpone the referendum after all. It is important to notice that the essential information, such as the death toll of the disaster or the damage assessment were not discussed in the newspaper at all, except for a small article with the title of, "Death toll after storm Nargis" sourced from the MNA (Myanmar News Agency) which stated that the death toll in one township out of the three divisions and two states affected by the storm amounted to 109 · people. This fact demonstrates the dishonest nature of the newspaper because when flipping through its pages the readers might be fooled to believe that the newspaper is quoting the number of casualties, when in reality only the death toll from one small region is being noted. What we can understand from the gathered information is that the newspaper not only failed to make the urgent announcement concerning the oncoming cyclone, but also it did not provide any realistic assessment of the disaster. Also the government can be observed to manipulate the existing situation to suit its politics and paint a good image of itself. (22] The Tainted Milk Issue In this section we will discuss The New Light of Myanmar's biased coverage of a recent health hazard issue: tainted milk products from China. Before getting to the data a brief background of this issue needs to be mentioned. In September 2008, dangerously high levels of the industrial chemical known as melamine in powdered baby milk and other dairy products in China sparked worldwide safety concerns (BBC News online). The issue came under spotlight on September 10 when China revealed that 14 babies fell ill after drinking the same brand of powdered milk. On September 12, the Sanlu Group admitted that its powdered milk was contaminated with the toxic melamine. On September 23, numerous countries across Asia started to test the powdered milk from China or pull it out from the shops. While there were high concerns about the tainted milk in the neighbouring countries, the Burmese state-run daily is not seen to carry any report related to the issue until September 25. On September 25, the state-run daily carried a report on the Health Minister Kyaw Mint's inspection tour of hospitals and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) department. The Minister instructed paediatricians on how "to check children" for possible illness related to the consumption of contaminated milk and checked on the possible presence of melamine in powdered milk at the FDA laboratory in Rangoon. Despite several references to the tainted milk issue, the report failed to link the milk to China. Similarly, on 26 September, in the article titled "Milk Powder and Health" in The New Light of Myanmar, the author-a doctor-failed to mention China in relation to the incident, saying "According to a news story, two children in Hong [23) Kong had gall stones in their kidneys." Concluding, the article said, "The problem is now rife across the world, not in one country alone." A Xinhua report and unsourced Internet reports were published in the international news sections of The New Light of Myanmar on 20 and 24 September. The Xinhua report said: "Most liquid milk in China does not contain melamine." What the papers characterized as "Internet" reports carried upbeat references to China, saying: "China removes 7000 tonnes of tainted milk from retail outlets" and "China strengthens quality supervision on export foods and goods." During the month of October as well, The New Light ofMyanmar continues to show its sensitivity in reporting the milk issue. Two of the government-issued announcements cautioning the public to avoid certain products because they contain melamine seemed carefully designed to obscure China's involvement in the issue. The announcements - "No.41/2008" on 9 October and "No. 42/2008" on 13 October -were widely publicized by Burma's state-run newspapers. The 9 October announcement mentioned China only once, explaining that there are "children in some countries including China are suffering from kidney stones after consuming the tainted milk powder contaminated with melamine, and some children died." The announcement then warned the public not to consume several products -:- which are known to be produced in China - but did not indicate the country of origin for any of the products. As published, the list reads: "(a) Star Milk Powder (20gm) (b) Crown (c) Happy Baby Toys (d) Dulac (Dumex) step 1 (Infant Formula) (e) Star (450 gm) (f) Mandalay-Raw Milk Powder (g) Whole Sweet Milk [24) Powder (Two Cows Shi Lin) (h) Rainbow Milk Powder (i) Enfagrow Milk Powder" (The New Light ofMyanmar, 10 October). * Fo1· the health of babies The 13 October announcement added Mothe1· 's milk the best additional products to the list and provided * If mother's milk is not suffident country of origin tags - "Korea" and "China" Cow or goat's milk can be used for two products. As published, the second list * Always boil the milk reads: l The best for health Figure14: Notification concerning "(j) Full Cream Milk Powder-Golden River (k) with the milk contamination Calcium milk Powder-Butterfly (1) Full Cream Milk Powder-Yu-Li (m) Sweet Whey Powder (n) Non-Dairy Creamer (Korea) (o) Non-Dairy Creamer (China) (p) Elfalac Al+" (The New Light of Myanmar, 14 October). As par Figure 14, the notification is made without any mention of either China or tainted milk - appeared in the newspaper since 10 October (The New Light ofMyanmar, 10 October.) The nature of these reports and announcements shows the close ties Burma has with China, who is not only its leading investor but also its primary ally, supporting the junta in various decisions regarding its iron fisted rule which are frequently opposed by the international community. As a result of this close tie, the newspaper's objectivity to inform the public has been pushed aside and only a limited view of the general scope of the situation is discussed in the newspaper. It shows the government's priority when choosing between the interest of the public's safety and its relationship with close allies. A possible conclusion that can be reached is that the [25) government is willing to risk the lives of its citizens in favour of protecting the image of its ally. The Saffron Revolution The following section is devoted to the notions of the freedom of assembly and the freedom of press. If a country enjoys a certain amount of freedom a newspaper is expected to carry two sides of the story in a conflict situation. We will look at the September Saffron Revolution in this part to discuss this topic. The freedom of assembly is defined in this thesis as the right of people to gather in a peaceful protest without fear of government harassment or intrusion. It is related to issues of freedom of speech, religion and the right to petition to the government (UDHR, Article 20). These issues are in tum related to the freedom of opinion-any person should have the right to have opinions and to express them without the fear of interference and to receive information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers (EDHR, Article 19). With these definitions in mind, let us now look at the newspaper's presentation of the September Saffron Revolution. The New Light of Myanmar has mostly been seen to openly denounce the actions of National League for Democracy (NLD), the only prominent Burmese opposition group working inside the country, yet the NLD's voice is never present in the state-run newspaper to counter argue any accusations made by the government. On the other hand, the newspaper never ceases to present the news related to the gatherings of people in support of the government's decisions and on some days, this news is mentioned several times in different articles. In this section, the nature of this type of news coverage is compared. [26] Firstly, we will look at the largest public gathering in Burma after two decades since the last military coup in 1988. The protest was initially known to have been started by students and women, mostly housewives, who could not afford to buy food for their families. The protest started on August 24 2007, although there have been sources reporting an earlier date as well (Booth, The Times online ). The monks are known to have led the protest from September 2 until September 27, 2007 when the authorities arrested the protesters. The New Light of Myanmar has been surprisingly slow in reporting about the protests. The state-run newspaper maintained a total blackout in reporting of the protests until September 25, nearly a month after the protests had started. The first acknowledgment of the protests by the newspaper is featured with the headline announcement, "State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee has duty to reinforce and observe basic principles and rules and regulations and implement religious matters. The directives state all the rules and regulations for the monks prohibiting them from participating in secular affairs" (The New Light of Myanmar, 25 Sep. 07. page 1). The announcement warns monks not to participate in the protests. The feature articles of the day also aim at preventing the monks from participating in the protests while stressing the alleged US and foreign media (VOA, BBC, RF A and DVB) news broadcasters' major involvement in instigating the people to start civil unrest. As the protests continue the official newspaper continues to carry reports on government's endeavours - building bridges, roads, and dams, as well as on military families donating cash and provisions to monks. All these actions are showcasing the [27) government's efforts to improve the living conditions in Burma and particularly to indicate the government's support for Buddhist monks. On 26 November, the newspaper stated that ''protest is not the work ofSangha [monks]" in its headlines. On 27 November, on the back cover of the newspaper we read: "Protesters throw stones at members of security forces and use catapults. Two senior police, six others wounded. Two senior police, six others wounded. One protestor killed, three wounded." At the same time, media organizations outside the country estimate the number of causalities to be much higher although no one knows the exact number of arrests and deaths. On 28 November, The New Light of Myanmar, again on the back cover of the newspaper states that the "Demonstrators stone security forces, use catapults, Security members fire warning shots as protesters turning blind eye to repeated requests." On all the three days there are no photographs present regarding the situations and the headlines on the cover of the newspaper report about high-ranking ministers attending several trade fairs, praying and making merits for the full moon day, paying homage and donating to the monks at the same time urging the monks not to protest. Another important fact misreported by the newspaper is the death of the Japanese journalist, Nagai Kenji, who was the only foreign journalist who died during the crackdown of the protest. The footage of his death, shot by a citizen from his apartment window with his mobile phone camera, was immediately widely disseminated and was available to be seen on several news websites (The Times online ). While the international response to this video was full of anger and shock, with accusations of "deliberate shooting," The New Light of Myanmar reported the [28] case on 28 November, 2007, one day after the incident, stating, "Among the dead was a Japanese named Mr Nagai Kengi, 52. He was killed while gathering news amidst the protests although he was here on a tourist visa. Together with him at the time were a Canon video camera and a mobile phone, it is learnt." From the language used, we get the impression that although Mr. Nagai Kenji was shot to death, he was not supposed to be filming the protest since he was on a tourist visa. The language used is not apologetic, but rather distant and maybe even to a certain extent putting the blame on the victim. On another level, the message can also be read as a warning to all the journalists and others who dare to take pictures of the protests with their cameras and mobile phones that they too may be shot. The headlines of The New Light of Myanmar for the rest of the month remain unchanged, carrying similar messages of warning aimed at the protesters while blaming the foreign media and broadcasting stations and accusing the United States of instigating instability in the country. Judging from the headlines in the newspaper only (without taking into account the information from other news media from both the local and international community), we can see that the protests are definitely continuing and that they are led by monks, which must be the reason why the generals are making announcements and giving warnings. But if this is the case, we are also told that the monks are the people who build the catapults and hurt the soldiers and authorities. It is indeed a questionable, if not a doubtful, image to paint in one's mind that shows the monks building catapults and throwing rocks at the soldiers. If the monks did attack the authorities, what had the authorities done to deserve such a response? [29) Another discrepancy is the fact that no pictures of the protesters were shown in the newspaper at the time of the protests. If the monks did commit the crimes they were accused of, why did the newspaper not print any photographs as evidence in support of their statements? One possible explanation is that perhaps the photographs did not carry the same message as the headlines and articles. If there is a protest then there must be demands but the demands of the people, i.e. to lower the prices of commodities, were not mentioned directly. The only mention of the protesters' demands can be found in the feature articles but the follow up on how these demands were answered is not reported. The objectivity of The New Light of Myanmar's news reporting is highly questionable at this point, but to make the point stronger, let us will compare it with the way the newspaper reports on the multiple gatherings of the people in support of the government's constitution, in denunciation of the National League for Democracy (NLD), and of the rallying to denounce the protests led by the monks. What is interesting, in the case of these kinds of rallies and supportive demonstrations, many photographs are presented and multiple articles focusing on the same topic in various geographical locations are seen published on the same day. [30) Editorial Article Titles The following section summarises the editorial article topics which have been written during four years (January to December 2006, 2007, 2008 and January- August 2009), together with the density or the approximate number in which they appear in The New Light of Myanmar. The table has two columns: the first column shows the topics which fall into different categories and the second column shows the numbers of articles in the specified categories. The first category is National Convention and the articles which fall under this category have titles, such as: "All citizens are to take part in tasks to successfully hold the National Convention" (26 January 2006), "Rights will be available only if they are rightfuI" (26 May 2008, NLM), "Delegate groups submit suggestions on detailed basic principles for legislation of Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, " "Pyithu Hluttaw, " "Amyotha Hluttaw, and Region and State Hluttaws to the Plenary Session of the Natibnal Convention" (10 January 2006) and so on. The second category is Articles Written in Support of Constitution and Seven-Step Roadmap: "The New Constitution and Union System" (1 April 2008, NLM), "Do not derail the democratic process" (28 September 2008), "Myanmar pursuing goal ofdemocracy with transparency and time frame" (26 September 2008), "True Patriotism and Nobel Tatmadaw" (29 March 2006) and so on. The third category is Educational Articles, such as "Fire Prevention" (4 August 2006 NLM), "Health Education" (18 September 2009 NLM), and so on. The fourth category is Awards and Ceremonies and any opening ceremony or awards are included under this category, such as "Literacy Day" (6 September 2006 NLM), "Independence [31) Day" (4 January 2008 NLM), and so on. The fifth category is Press Conferences, such as "Press conference on economic growth of Myanmar" ( 17 December 2006 NLM), "Press Conference regarding John Yettaw" (7 August 2009 NLM). The sixth category is for articles which showcase the developments during the time of the Tatmadaw (Military) government. Some example articles here are "Developments in the Shan State under the Tatmadaw (Military) government" (26 May 2008), "Progress of Communication Sector in the Time of Tatmadaw Government" (27 March 2009) and so on. The seventh category is Government Policies on ASEAN and Neighbouring Countries and the eight category is Articles Discriminating Againg Specific Opposition Leaders and Western News Agencil's. Some sample titles are - "Tsunami, Mattel and Skyful of lies" (27 September 2007), "Beware of rats that are trying to make holes in the walls of the granary" (19 June 2008) and so on. The final, ninth category refers to Intentionally Chosen Historical Facts to support the government's actions and some headlines under this topic are: "Myanmar did not become democratic due to early restoration of independence by the British" (29 June 2006 NLM), "Trickery employed by Opportunists" (23 November 2006. NLM), "No one should serve as stepping stones ofpoliticians" (13 October 2007), and so on. ------····------~------Topic Approximate J number of articles I written within four 1 ...... -··-··-·····-···-···-···--····-·--·········································--·····--··-················· ...... Y~a.:.:.r::... s:: ...... ; 1. National Convention 348 2. Assertive Articles Written to Support the Constitution and 263 the Seven Step Road Map I t------~---~------'------·-·-·-f 3. Educational Articles 57 4. Awards and Ceremonies 108 5. Press Conferences 63 """"""'""""'"""""""'"""""""""'"""'"'"""""-""""""-'""'""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""' ...... -·-····-·-·················•""""""""""'"'-·---··-··················"""""""'""'"""""""""""""""""""""""---""'"'"'"""'···-·---"""""""··········-·--·-..---··-·······················""'"-""'; [32) ··················-·-··· ...... ·-···-···-······ ··········-·----...... _.. __ ,, ...... ~ .. -.. -·-···· ...... -..... 6. of the States and Divisions 140 ·- Sho;~~se ~fDevelopments 7. Government Policies on ASEAN and Neighbouring 139 Countries ,.... ---· 8. Articles Discriminating Against Specific Opposition 217 Leaders and Western News Agencies 9. Referring to Intentionally Chosen Historical Facts to 105 Support the Government's Actions _J Table 2: Frequency of editorial articles under different categories written during the last four years The objective of the above table is to show that during the last four years from an approximate total of 1,440 editorial articles, give or take about seven days due to the unavailability of some issues, the number of articles written in support of the government is very large. The data in the table has been calculated on the basis of examining every available issue of The New Light of Myanmar newspapFrom the numbers we can see the basic number of articles written to support the government. Compared with this, the number of educative articles is very low, and there is also the question of whether these articles were truly educational or not. The numbers from the table show that The New Light ofMyanmar, writes articles for the government all year round and every article coincides with the government's plan. There are also no different opinions and no voice of the opposition mentioned in the newspaper. This data will be used again in Chapter 3 to help in examining the purpose and ideology of the propaganda presented in the newspaper. [33] Slogans, Exhortations and Advertisements In this final section, I would like to present two more types of materials extracted from The New Light of Myanmar: all the usual slogans and exhortations presented every day and in every version of The New Light of Myanmar and the advertisements which are sometimes included in the newspaper. • On top of the front page of all the issues of The New Light ofMyanmar there is always an indication of the way to auspiciousness, changed on a weekly basis, e.g.: "Dhammacariya ca - lawful-conduct; this is the way to auspiciousness", "Virati papa, to refrain from sin; this is the way to auspiciousness", "Brahmacariyafica, chastity; this is the way to auspiciousness." • All the issues carry some or all of the following slogans or exhortations: "Emergence of the State Constitution is the duty of all citizens of Myanmar Naing-Ngan" PEOPLE"S DESIRE * Oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding negative views *Oppose those trying to jeopardize stability of the State and progress of the nation * Oppose foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the State * Crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy FOUR POLITICAL OBJECTIVES: * Stability of the State, community peace and tranquillity, prevalence oflaw and order; *National reconsolidation; * Emergence of a new enduring State Constitution; * Building of a new modem developed nation in accord with the new State Constitution. FOUR ECONOMIC OBJECTIVES: * Development of agriculture as the base and all round development of other sectors of the economy as well; *Proper evolution of the market-oriented economic system; *Development of the economy inviting participation in terms of technical know-how and investments from sources inside the country and abroad; *The initiative to shape the national economy must be kept in the hands of the State and the national peoples. FOUR SOCIAL OBJECTIVES: *Uplift of the morale and morality of the entire nation; * Uplift of national prestige and integrity and preservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage and national character; *Uplift of dynamism of patriotic spirit; *Uplift of health, fitness and education standards of the entire nation. People's Desire [] We favour stability. D We favour peace. D We oppose unrest and violence. [34] Who are the winners, who the losers from violent protests? D Due to violence and unrest, Peace-loving people have to live in state of alarm, Learning of students disrupted, Commodity flow stagnant, Vendors have hard times, Passenger transport services delayed D Due to violence and unrest, Only the notorious neo-colonialists benefited, Instigators covertly earning dollars, Expatriates and ax-handles living in luxury, Followers of colonialists earning handsome dollar rewards D RF A, VOA and BBC airing skyful of lies U RFA, VOA and BBC saboteurs, watch your step! D The public be warned of killers in the air waves - RF A, VOA and BBC - Skyful liars attempting to destroy nation - BBC lying VOA deceiving RF A setting up hostilities - Beware! Don't be bought by those slickers Table 3: Slogans and exhortations carried by The New Light ofMyanmar As seen from the material presented in this table, The New Light of Myanmar appears as an obvious tool used by the government to instil the kind of thinking which the government wants to see. The economic, social and political objectives appear not only in The New Light of Myanmar, they also appear in every text book, novel, magazine, any type of print publication, films, radio and television programs made with the consent of the government. The purpose of these objectives will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. At this point, these slogans and exhortations are quoted to demonstrate that the newspaper aims to create the appearance of the unity, "People's Desire," yet we do not see any trace of what individual people actually have to say because they are always mentioned as a group with the same desires or objectives. Another important issue here is to see how the government tries to unite the people by giving them a common external enemy: BBC, VOA, RF A and other internal and external individuals who are supposedly trying to destabilize the nation. If this is so, we can always ask, where are these other people and why do they not make their voice heard? And the answer might either be because they are not real or [35] because they do not have any freedom to make their voices heard in the govemment owned newspaper. Referring to the definition of propaganda, this is an example of limiting information to the people because chances are there will always be those who will want different objectives and who will have different political ideologies in any country so everyone should get a chance to be heard and to be convinced with reasons why they should support a certain political option. A government-owned newspaper indicates the nature of the government and also reflects on the government's view and expectations of the citizens. The above table can help us deduce who the readers of the newspaper are as well. We will return to this issue in Chapter 3. Newspapers mostly fund themselves from advertisements and they are known to be somewhat influenced by the person who provides the majority of funds for the newspaper and his/her ideology. They also frequently have to print stories in accordance with the readers' expectations and provide enough information to satisfy their curiosity because readership is the most important fact in publishing a newspaper. Advertisements are a rarity in The New Light ofMyanmar. As mentioned before the newspaper is owned and funded by the government and to show that it does not need any special funding, in this last part of the chapter, I would like to quote some advertisements which actually appear in The New Light ofMyanmar. [36) THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR Ml'i!STRY OF RAlL TRANSPORTAIION MYANMA RAILWAYS l:-IV!TATION lO SEALt.D TliNDER l . ~ealed Tender is in11i1ed by lllil)anma Railways, for supply oftbe follliwing St nres \~ :1 id1 \\ i l1 be purcha«<::d in M}llllnlllf K ya1; l!;m;l~Llis. Pn.;dn\i9n Quamity ! ~ITC MR( \·I l ' Ruh her Hose, fl.1'>11 & Nut, Wa~he~, MS Pipe. I· I.All :.oo&.Jtl09 A-800 Cnmpre;:Mlf, Mam !exhauster 1 NMV, Roller (3J7-ltem~) So:.iuing. Ball Rearing.. R11(,!ini•>r 12tl0mm.Grind~1g \l!!.:itir.e. Dtill \tocbin.:. MS f'law. Wdding Electrode. fled;ile Cwle W•!>!, CA:lk 1:111 s.nd1ei, ClKui: lirea.4-r, ( dli~1 • 'fi· Mar~inti, Sl''e"~ l"tpll •. ?mk)11GG1.or, \.ult•F'• Cun.twl R<\;;) an CLAL'\IS DAY :SOTICE l\IV BANGSAPHA.~ VOYNO ( 67) Consignees of cargo camed on MV BA."'i GSAPHAN VOYN0(67)111't'bftebynotifiedthatthe vessel will be arm'ingon IL 10.2008 and cargo will be discharged into the pRlllises ofMI.P ~it"''lll lie al the c~·s ink and~ awl subject to the byelaws and conditicm of the Port ofYangon. Damaged cargo l>i!I be surveyed daily from Sam to 11 :20 l1111awl 12 noon to 4 pm up to Claim!. Dayoow declared as thelhirddayafter final disclw:geofe&:ge from the vessel. Noclllimsagainstthis;-e,.>clwillbeadmittedafter the C.1ailm Day. i'>'HIPPING AGE.VC.'\'DEPARTML"\1 lIYA."-'M."" PORT AFIHORIIY AGE:U FOR: MIS WONG SAML'T OCEAN SHIPPING CO, LTD Phone No: 2569191256916/256912 Figure 16: Another usual type of advertisement found in The New Light ofMyanmar This chapter has tried to show in more than one ways that The New Light of Myanmar's reporting the news is biased and that, most of the time, it does not meet the expectations of what a newspaper should be like, based on the qualities, such as: timeliness, proximity to local readers, and conflict reporting starting from the development of an issue till the end. What we find in The New Light of Myanmar instead is that it disseminate information and models of the expected behaviour of the [37] people approved of by the government and also that it limits information to create wrong impressions so that the readers have no choice but to agree with what the powerful elite wants them to. This chapter has been concerned with the news in the domestic sector only and we can guess that the publishers do want people to read the newspaper because of all the slogans and exhortations printed therein. But these slogans can also serve as a purpose to undermine the opinions of other countries who openly criticize the government and to boldly and blatantly promote the government by means of the newspaper. The next chapter will be concerned with the international news and the preference given to different countries. [38) Chapter (2): News Concerning the International Community In this chapter, topics concerned with international events included and excluded in The New Light of Myanmar are discussed with the aim of suggesting that the selection of news reported by the newspaper indicates a form of shaping the worldview and mental habits of the populace in favour of the newspaper's owner. Although these are necessary characteristics of dictatorial language, they cannot be called "propaganda" yet. Still, to prevent others from thinking of an alternate interpretation by not giving them a choice to think otherwise can be considered as such. This is what this chapter tries to achieve: to highlight the limited amount of news given by The New Light of Myanmar as possibly motivated by the aim of limiting its readers' views. This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section focuses on the news relating to the Western nations, such as the United States and the Great Britain. We will discuss which news gets to be reported together with the editorial articles, which are usually used to support the newspapers' agenda. The second section will compare some of the headlines to discuss the differences in the treatment each country receives, depending on its relationship with the Burmese government. Due to the abundance of data, the period of time has been limited to 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. The "significant" events which happened in the world discussed in this chapter are the events which have generally been accepted as significant on the global level, not merely important for a given country or a geographical location. These are major and ongoing events which have been tracked by media around the world and the list, used [39) for the sake of comparison to find out whether certain news were included in The New Light ofMyanmar, has been compiled from several sources (Infoplease online). United States of America Before taking a look at the news reports concerning the relation between the United States and Burma, presently called Myanmar under the rule of the current government, some facts regarding the relationship between the two countries in question need to be explained briefly to help the reader explore possible reasons for the obviously strained portrayal of the United States in the state-run newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar. There is certainly a possibility of the United States having a baseline stance on describing Burma in their numerous newspapers and news agencies, but as this is not directly related to this paper, it will not be discussed. This paper discusses the reporting and journalistic standards seen in The New Light of Myanmar and the possibility of its being a propaganda tool for the Burmese State to influence and limit the views of the population by reporting certain news which might benefit their political agenda. The tensioned relationship between Burma and the United States begins with the terms, "Myanmar" and "Burma." Burma was the original name of the country until 1989 when the military government enacted the Adaptation of Expression Law to Myanmar, but since the democratically elected but not convened Parliament of 1990 has not recognized the change of name, as a supporter of democratically elected governments, the U.S. Government does not support the term, Myanmar. [40] In recent decades, the U.S. Government maintained broad economic sanctions imposed on Burma and objected to many of the human rights violation issues regarding the Burmese government's actions in cases, such as the crackdown on the 1988 student uprising, the closed trial imprisonment of political party members, and the recent crackdown on Buddhist monks in September 2007. The United States also remains the most outspoken petitioner for the famous political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's, who has remained under repeated house arrest for 13 years. Based on these facts, the relationship between the US and Burma is full of tension and in recent years it has become more severely strained. The question arising here is how will a country represent an enemy state in its state-run newspaper? We will start by looking at how the news regarding the United States' policy on Burma and vice versa is reported in The New Light ofMyanmar. In the aftermath of the cyclone Nargis, while acknowledging the receipt of relief assistance from several countries - Thailand, China, Singapore, Japan, Bangladesh, India, Laos, and the UN agencies - the official newspaper is not known to have reported on the aid offered by the United States. On May 7th 2008, in the article named, "International organizations donate medicines, food, cash and relief items to storm victims in Myanmar" (page 8), it failed to mention any US aid - neither the initial emergency aid of $250,000 nor the follow-up aid of $3 million - while the newspaper named other donor countries and organizations. On 15th May 2008, the first comment regarding the US' assistance to victims of the natural disaster was mentioned in the article, "Let's work together for the nation to be able to rise from natural disaster" by Hlaing Aung in The New Light of [41) Myanmar. Although, the article looks like it expresses a private opinion, as the name of the journalist is given, it has to be kept in mind that articles in the Burmese state run newspapers are written with consent or on request from higher authorities and they fall under heavy censorship. The article mentions that the assistance received by Burma is "rather small" if compared with the assistance given to other countries in the region that suffered natural disasters. The writer recalls the assistance received by Bangladesh from the US in 2007 as "14.4 million US dollars" and by Indonesia during the tsunami in 2004 as "more than 800 US million dollars." It asserts that Myanmar people accept any kind of foreign aid with appreciation, regardless of the amount and that Myanmar leaves the door open to assistance from "friendly countries that have goodwill" for it. It also says that Burma "will not rely too much on international assistance and will construct the nation on self-reliance basis." 1 1 On a similar topic, on 20 h and 215 May 2008, a two-instalment article, "Let's replace earth bricks with stone ones" by Kyaw Min Lu, emphasizes in the first part that despite difficulties, the state is trying its best to send relief supplies to the storm victims as soon as possible by taking "systematic measures" for relief and distribution "in order not to cause delay." In the second part of the article the author emphasizes the "strings attached to the relief supplies" received from United States, by quoting an article by Sara Flounders, "US hostility hampers relief," who stated in her article that the Bush Administration was trying to profit from giving aid to Burma, hoping to receive natural resources and gas deposits in return. Kyaw Min Lu agrees with this notion and he concludes at the end of his article: "Myanmars are not a people who (42] are able to rise only with others' assistance and who know how to deal with things only after others have provided methods." On the other hand, the article confirms some news which the newspaper originally failed to mention. For example, The New Light of Myanmar did not mention that the US and French Naval ships which were carrying supplies for the victims were anywhere in the vicinity of Burmese waters, but the author of the article unwittingly or purposefully makes it a point to deny the fact that the government did not accept the supplies and also in a way acknowledges the presence of the US warships near the Burmese waters. As another example, the article also indirectly mentions possible transportation difficulties some regions might be facing due to the cyclone which the official newspaper news article failed to tackle. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, the picture shows the state's IC•••••••••••••••• f,.,. ••~ )I I' Jiunrymp.mal ....,,..., o!illO:amoat I ,...... ,..ri..p1a 2007 January 2, in celebration of the Maung Cbit Kaung 60th Anniversary of Figurel7: Cartoon found in The New Light ofMyanmar on January 2, 2007 ( page 7) the Independence Day of Burma, which falls on 4 January, the editorial included a cartoon depiction showing the men of Burma fighting against what seems like a pair of bird claws. If [43] we assume the bird to be an eagle, it is easy to make a connection with the United States that uses the eagle as a symbol of the country. This assumption can lead us to the apparent objective of the cartoon which suggests that true patriotism means to fight against the destructionist, the United States. In the following year -««•~·---"" ji I " Wt faronr slalKllcy '·' Wt faiwr peatc 2008 January 2, another cartoon " j' 1 We opp(m 1Jllf(~ I a11d violffii'e , depicting a similar concept is '---- 'I '~~,----J found (Figure 2). In this comic as well we can observe what ~H-l'Olionlnli.sfawf appears to be a foreign man, l11ttma:llE:um1al dtstnlCtioolim· judging from the attire, most Figure 18: A cartoon found in The New Light ofMyanmar on January 2, 2008 likely a Western man with a top hat and a striped necktie who is called the, "Neo- colonialist" appeared to be shaken by a hand representing "the entire people" of ,.,~ ...... ~ Burma. It is obvious the ./~aeawttlltst~\ / wtfll 11a6ollal aw'llfi"lff'$S tor ) character has prominent 1 . JlftllffDalioo of ittdeptJllltJICt i and 50\'f'n'igil~' _/,l similarities with the typical caricature which represents America. On January 3, 2008 a similar cartoon is printed again Kmingllm Figure 19: A cartoon found in The New Light ofMyanmar (Figure 3). The silhouette of the on January 3, 2008. human figure again resembles depictions used to represent the United States. Also, on January 2, 2009 another cartoon was printed in The New Light of Myanmar (Figure 4). This time the cartoon clearly indicates the foreign force which [44) is out to "invade" other countries by pasting news titles such as, "US chopper guns down Iraqi civilians" and "Over 3200 Afghan civilians killed due to US and NATO air strikes." These statements make it clear for the readers who exactly the newspaper means every time it uses such terms uniqueness of all these political cartoons is the fact that they were included in The New Light of Myanmar as part of celebration of Figure 20: A cartoon found in The New Light of the Independence Day of Burma. Myanmar on January 9, 2009 Burma was colonized by Britain and not by the United States. And all the feature articles and the cartoons mentioned before all carry one message: the United States is a neo-colonialist nation and all the people in the country must unite under the military government as to be protected from being colonized again. These kinds of cartoons are not found for other countries except for the United States. The same can be said about the editorial articles as well - they only carry a consistent resentment towards the United States accusing Americans of wanting to get economic gains from invading Burma. Since The New Light of Myanmar is a state-run newspaper, it is safe to assume that all its editorials and cartoons serve as a tool for suppqrting the political agenda of the government, and are meant to serve as an indication that a strong military government is needed for the country because of the countries like the United States. The articles paint the image of the United States [45) as a powerful yet ruthless nation with no respect for other countries' boundaries. On the other hand, the lack of contradiction from the opposition side makes the newspaper one-sided and biased, having low or non-existent journalistic standards and being an unreliable news source for its readers. Let us have a look on some more examples. The Secretary of the State, Hillary Clinton's Asian visit was given an extremely limited coverage that included reports of public protests against her taken fr~m unnamed sources. On 19th February, 2008 The New Light ofMyanmar carried an article from Jakarta sourced to "Internet" titled, "Some protests set for Clinton's Indonesian Visit." Another example of The New Light of Myanmar's coverage on anti-American protests during a high-profile US visit can be the coverage of the former US President George W. Bush's visit to Asia in August 2008. On the 9th August, 2008 The New Light Myanmar published a news article sourced to Xinhua reporting that protesters were fired at with water cannons as "President Bush got a volatile reception" in South Korea at the start of his Asian trip. President Barack Obama was elected to become the 44th American president on 4th November. The Burmese state-run newspaper reported sending the congratulatory note out on 8th November. The newspaper reported President's Obama's win on 5th November 2008 under the title, "Americans vote in historic polf' (page 3). The newspaper report indicates the Head of State and Vice-Senior General of Burma's slow response in sending the congratulatory note meanwhile other congratulatory notes to countries, such as Russia on the election of President Dmitry Medvedev was sent on 8th May, 2008 and appeared in the official newspaper on 9th [46] May 2008, on time. This can be a matter of bad journalism but on the other hand it is a significant matter on the global level and a major breakdown in the barrier of racial issues and the whole situation can be seen as a deliberate signature representing the state's choice to decrease the importance of events when they concern the United States. Similarly, in the case of sending congratulatory notes related to important national holidays, on July 5th 2008, the state-run newspaper broke its baseline coverage style of reporting news on sending congratulatory notes. Normally such notes are mentioned on the next day after they have been sent. This time the headlines read, "Senior General Than Shwe felicitates President Mr. Hugo Chavez" (page 1). This is a unique gesture because the Independence Day of the United States is on July 4th and the Independence Day of Venezuela is on 5th July, which shows that not only did the government choose to ignore the Independence Day of one of countries which paid the largest amount of money to aid the Burmese people affected by the cyclone Nargis, but also that it deliberately decided to congratulate a nation that is in an obviously tense relationship with the United States. It also indicates the influence of the military on what is being put in the newspaper. [47) North Korea The official ties between North Korea and Burma were cut after the deadly terrorist attacks in 1983 when North Korean agents attempted to murder top-ranking South Korean government officials visiting Rangoon, the old capital. But over the past ten years, the two countries have renewed their ties and Burma has been rumoured to be upgrading its military equipments by buying it from North Korea. Due to the similarity in governing systems (both countries have military governments, and both are isolated), the relationship between Burma and North Korea seems to be progressing very fast with unconfirmed high-ranking officials' visits (not mentioned in The New Light of Myanmar) between the two countries. Both Burma and North Korea have been suspected by the UN and many international countries including the US, Britain and France, to be involved in the purchase and supply of weapons and army vehicles. On 26th April 2007, North Korea's official news agency, Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), reported the signing of the "joint communique" on the resumption of ties between North Korea and Burma but The New Light ofMyanmar is not known to have reported the event on 2ih April and did not report later either. There were three other belated reports on Burma's agreements with three other countries during 2006. On those occasions, the reports appeared a few days after the agreements were reached at Burma's Permanent Mission to the UN in New York which means there was delay in reporting of the events in The New Light Myanmar. The signing of the joint communique on the establishment of ties with East Timor at the UN on 26 [48) September 2006 was reported in The New Light of Myanmar four days later. Similarly, in December 2006, the same paper reported Burma's new ties with Slovenia 10 days after the agreement was signed in New York and, also that same month, with Montenegro, 11 days after the ties were established. Recently, a North Korean cargo ship named Kang Nam 1, which set to dock at the Burmese port, Myanmar International Terminals Thilawa (MITT), was rumoured to be carrying weapons in defiance of the United Nations embargo (BBC News online). The state-run newspaper denied the accusations by stating on 25th June 2009 that Kang Nam 1 was not headed for Burma. However, it was added that Burma wase expecting another North Korean ship, the MV Dumangang, to arrive in Burma on June 27 to pick up 8,000 tons of rice. The ship was later known to return to North Korea without reaching Burma. There was no follow up to that information. When it comes to sending congratulatory notes to North Korea, not only did the· newspaper make the announcements on time but also the notes appeared to be upbeat in tone as well. On September 9th, 2007, three notes of felicitations were sent separately to Kim Jong 11, Chairman of the National Defence Commission, Kim Yong Nam, President of Presidium Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Yong 11, Premier of Cabinet on the occasion of the "Day of the Foundation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea." This was the first time the official Burmese newspaper has acknowledged the re-establishment of ties between the two countries. Similar messages were observed to have been sent in 2008 on the same occasion. No editorial articles which focus on North Korea have been written so far in The New Light of Myanmar. [49] China China and Burma have had a long standing business relationship since 1949. The Burmese word "Swemyo Paukphaw," which means "friends like relatives" or "friends like siblings" is used to describe the relationship between the two countries. This term is reserved for China only signifying the strength and the unique relationship the two countries share. However, the close ties China and Burma share today were not always like that. In 1967, anti-Chinese riots took place bringing the relationship to a halt. This changed, however, after the 1988 military coup in Burma. In 1954, Burma, China and India jointly proclaimed the "Five Principles of Peaceful Co existence" that were subsequently adopted by the Non-Aligned Movement as the basic for international relations. The five principles are: ( 1) Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty (2) Non-aggression (3) Non-interference in each other's internal affairs (4) Equality and mutual benefits, and (5) Peaceful co existence and peaceful settlement of dispute (The Embassy ofPRC in India website). Policies towards China changed under the current military government because of China's foreign policy of non-interference and Burma's geographic location. Burma's strategic location on the tri-junction of South Asia, Southeast Asia and China is potentially important for China to achieve its strategic presence in the Indian Ocean, and hence become a two-ocean power (Geng, p.14). [SO] For economic reasons, China and neighbouring countries have been attracted to Burma's natural oil and gas resources. In fact, China and Burma have been in trade relations since as far back as the 11th century. At the present, China is involved in many infrastructure developments in Burma; it is also the biggest foreign investor. Other factors contributing to the close relationship between the two countries include the pressure from Japan and the Western countries, a,nd the European Union's stance towards Burma and its policy makers. The sanctions imposed on Burma by the US and the EU also seem to bring Burma closer to China. The New Light of Myanmar is seen to protect China by not mentioning some negative or difficult issues and presenting mostly positive information and reports about it. The recent issue which was covered up in The New Light of Myanmar was the tainted milk issue (mentioned in more detail in Chapter 1), where the consumption of powdered mil products containing melamine resulted in 296,000 children falling ill (BBC News online). Close ties between Burma and China can also be seen from reading some of the editorial articles included in The New Light of Myanmar. On 1st January, 2008 in celebration of the Independence Day of Burma which falls on January 4th, the paper published an editorial article with the title, "Maintain Justice and Jndependency" (page 8) by Kya,w Min Aye. The article's main theme concerned Burmese history focusing on how China and Burma have managed to retain their relationship over the years only to come out as the closest allies. The article describes the long-standing relationship between China and Burma through the turbulent times in the past and through the modem times while at the same time criticising the United States by [51) using terms such as, "the US and its allied forces constructed Ledo Highway linking India, Myanmar and China in a desperate manner" or in another paragraph, "the CIA provided the remnant Chinese nationalists with arms and enabled them to take stronghold in Myanmar." Another part of the article, however, mentions China's role in giving a helping hand and financial aid for the economic development of Burma. It also states that because .of the "Five Principles of Co-existence," China and Burma have agreed to be "good neighbours" while allowing each other to remain in one own "sovereignty and independence," meaning the "non-interference policy" imposed by the Five Principles of Co-existence. The important fact about the article is that it was written in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Independence Day of Burma, yet it focuses mostly on the strong ties Burma has formed with its neighbours, China and India, while putting down the United States, even if Burma was actually occupied by the British. (52) Comparative Analysis of Media Bias In this section of the thesis, we shall examine sample headlines featured in The New Light of Myanmar in January 2008. The tables have six columns each: the first column numbers the items; the second one states the date on which the headlines appeared; the third column lists the headlines; the fourth column gives the section of the newspaper the headlines were taken from, e.g., economic, or international news; the fifth shows the page number the stories appeared on; and the last column indicates the news source(s) from which the international news were taken from. The section includes five tables: The United States, China, North Korea and other countries. The objective of these tables is to compare the headlines for different countries to see the choices of the articles included in The New Light of Myanmar to show as evidence that there is media biasness in the newspaper. Below are the five tables: The United States No. Date Title Section Page News Source No. 1 1.1.08 Bin Laden says US seeks to International 3 MNA/Xinhua exploit Iraqi oil News 2 1.1.08 US, Iraqi forces kill 5 International 4 MNA/Xinhua irunmen in N Iraq News 3 2.1.08 Petraeus says Iraq security International 3 MNA/Reuters fragile, gains reversible News 4 2.1.08 Belarus threatens to expel International 4 MNA/Xinhua US ambassador News 5 2.1.08 US Soldier dies of non- 15 MNA/Xinhua combat injuries in Iraq 6 3.1.08 US anti-war activists plan International 3 MNA/Xinhua protest near Rose Parade News 7 3.1.08 US Marine faces lesser International 4 MNA/Xinhua charges in Haditha killings News [53) 8 3.1.08 Romney says Bush 15 MNA/Reuters mismanaged Iraq war 9 4.1.08 US chopper kills suspected International 3 MNA/Xinhua insurgent in Iskandriyah News 10 4.1.08 American wounded in International 3 MNA/Reuters attack on US embassy car News in Sudan 11 4.1.08 Two US sailors found dead International 4 MNA/Reuters in hotel room in Ghana News 12 5.1.08 US launches criminal probe International 3 MNA/Reuters into CIA tapes destruction News 13 5.1.08 Maryland prisoner shoots, International 4 MNA/Reuters carjacks way out of hospital News 14 5.1.08 US soldier dies of non- International 4 MNA/Xinhua combat injuries in Iraq News 15 7.1.08 Three US soldiers killed in International 3 MNA/Xinhua Iraq News 16 7.1.08 Group sues US in push for International 4 MNA/Reuters new antibiotic warning News 17 8.1.08 Two slain US soldiers were International 3 MNA/Xinhua killed by Iraqi soldier News 18 8.1.08 US Democratic fundraiser International 4 MNA/Reuters gets three vears in iail News 19 8.1.08 Storm buffets California, International 4 MNA/Reuters millions lose power News 20 8.1.08 US dollar dragged down by Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua soft iob data 21 8.1.08 US unemployment rate 12 MNA/Xinhua rises to 5% in Dec 22 9.1.08 Egypt reiterates rejecting International 3 MNA/Xinhua US aid with conditions News 23 9.1.08 Iran says US failing in International 3 MNA/Reuters Middle East News 24 9.1.08 Two US soldiers killed in International 4 MNA/Xinhua bomb attacks in Iraq News 25 9.1.08 Japan, US, EU eye new International 4 MNA/Reuters enemv-saving body News 26 9.1.08 Hamas dismisses Bush Economic News 6 MNA/Reuters Mideast visit as "photo op" 27 9.1.08 Two US "F/A-18s" crash in 7 MNA/Reuters Gulf 28 10.1.08 Clinton vows to continue International 3 MNA/Reuters US presidential battle News 29 10.1.08 Iran has no plan to International 3 MNA/Xinhua normalize ties with US News 30 l 0.1.08 Live mice found on US 7 MNA/Xinhua flight to China 31 10.1.08 Obama recalls being broke 10 MNA/Reuters seven years ago [54] 32 10.1.08 Mexican army battles drug 10 MNA/Reuters gang near US border 33 10.1.08 US arrests eight in online 15 MNA/Reuters sports betting operation 34 11.1.08 Thousands protest in Gaza International 3 MNA/Reuters against "vampire" Bush News 35 11.10.08 Hamas lawmaker criticizes International 3 MNNXinhua PA ceremonies to welcome News Bush 36 11.10.08 US considers 3,000 more International 3 MN A/Reuters troops for Afghanistan News 37 11.1.08 151,000 Iraqis killed since International 3 MNA/Reuters US-led invasion News 38 11.1.08 Rocket strikes continue as International 4 MNA/Xinhua Bush arrives in Israel News 39 11.1.08 Iran's IRGC says US video International 4 MNA/Xinhua of Hormuz ship incident News fake 40 12.1.08 Obama says New International 3 MNA/Reuters Hampshire loss shows News change not easy 41 12.1.08 Richardson to drop US International 3 MNA/Reuters presidential bid News 42 12.1.08 Message, not gender turns International 4 MNA/Reuters US voters from Clinton News 43 12.1.08 US diplomats critical of International 4 MNA/Reuters Bush Iraq policy News 44 12.1.08 Critics try to sway debate 6 MNA/Reuters on US-India nuclear deal 45 12.1.08 Six killed in US winter 6 MNNXinhua storm 46 12.1.08 Most vulnerable homeless 6 MNNXinhua at risk of dying in LA 47 12.1.08 Chrysler recalls Jeep 10 MNNXinhua models in China over brake flaws 48 12.1.08 Six US soldiers killed in 12 MNA/Xinhua booby-trap bomb attack in Iraq 49 13.1.08 Iran releases own video of International 3 MNA/Xinhua US Gulf incident News 50 13.1.08 Romney attacks McCain at International 3 MNA/Reuters US Republican debate News Table 4: List of headlmes concerned with the Umted States (The New Light of Myanmar, January 2008) [SS] China No. Date Title Section Page News Source No. 1 1.1.08 China opposes US on anti- Economic News 4 MNA/Xinhua subsidy probe into tyres 2 1.1.08 China to slap export taxes on Economic News 4 Internet grains 3 1.1.08 China to slap export taxes on Economic News 4 Internet grains 4 2.1.08 China's commuter aircraft Economic News 4 MNA/Xinhua receives 20 new orders 5 2.1.08 China to crack down on illegal 'Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua food production, sale 6 2.1.08 Ancient Chinese boat arrives Advertisement 12 MNA/Xinhua at purpose-built museum 7 2.1.08 Chinese famous actor Sun Advertisement 13 MNA/Xinhua Daolin dies 8 3.l.08 China's NDRC to contain Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua amounting inflation pressure 9 3.1.08 5.54m Chinese born on New 12 MNA/Xinhua Year's Day 10 3.1.08 China coal mine death toll 15 MNA/Reuters rises to 19 11 4.1.08 Shanghai port continues to International 4 MNA/Xinhua rank first in the world News 12 4.1.08 Kung fu actor Jet Li tops 2007 12 Internet star income list 13 4.1.08 Police dogs start patrolling 12 MNA/Xinhua Beijing subway stations 14 4.1.08 China auto maker to develop 13 MNA/Xinhua hydrous ethanol engines 15 4.1.08 China puts quota on grain 15 MNA/Xinhua powder exports 16 5.1.08 Beijing's top universities 12 MNA/Xinhua remain popular 17 5.1.08 China bans online sale of 12 MNA/Xinhua lotteries to ensure regulation 18 5.1.08 Finger length could predict 13 MNA/Xinhua arthritis 19 6.1.08 Beijing's Top Universities 12 MNA/Xinhua remain popular 20 6.1.08 China bans online sale of 12 MNA/Xinhua lotteries to ensure re!!Ulation 21 7.1.08 Sinopec posts net profit of 70b Economic News 10 MNA/Xinhua yuan in 2007 22 7.1.08 China says North Korea delay 12 MNA/Xinhua "natural" 23 8.1.08 China's toy exports grow in Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua [56] first 10 months of "07 24 8.1.08 China's high-tech industry 13 MNA/Xinhua boosted 25 10.1.08 China donates water pumps Cover page 1 MNA 26 10.1.08 Chinese Defence Minister International 4 MNA/Xinhua meets with Singaporean guest News 27 10.1.08 China's Customs revenue in Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua 2007 hits record high 28 10.1.08 Plastic bags set to be banned 12 Internet in China 29 11.1.08 China to further cooperation Economic News 12 MNA/Xinhua with foreign trade unions 30 12.1.08 China auto production, sales ·Economic News 4 MNA/Xinhua to hit 10 m units in '08 31 12.1.08 China's union charity drive 6 MNA/Xinhua benefits 71 m poor families 32 12.1.08 China's Internet consumption 8 MNA/Xinhua to rise 45.8% in '08 33 12.1.08 2007 China Yearbook 12 MNA/Xinhua Published 34 12.1.08 Chinese customs uncovers 12 MNA/Xinhua 1, 190 smus:rn:ling cases in 2007 35 12.1.08 China to limit use of plastic 13 MNA/Xinhua bags from one June 36 14.1.08 China's progress in human 7 MNA/Xinhua rights should be applauded 37 14.1.08 China's migrant workers' 11 MNA/Xinhua income rose in 2007 38 15.1.08 China completes first 300,000- 4 MNA/Xinhua ton man-made waterway 39 15.1.08 China's digital camera sales Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua surge 30% in 2007 40 15.1.08 Beijing beefs up security for 10 MNA/Xinhua Olympics 41 15.1.08 Chinese expedition team 13 MNA/Xinhua reaches Antarctic icecap peak 42 16.1.08 China paper sees West to International 3 MNA/Xinhua blame themselves in Kenya News chaos 43 16.1.08 Sino-Indian relations face International 4 MNA/Xinhua "strategic chances" News 44 16.1.08 China imports record 163 m Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua tons of crude oil in '07 45 16.1.08 Migrant workers, 7.6% 6 MNA/Xinhua satisfied with social status in China 46 16.1.08 China to improve nutrition 12 MNA/Reuters labelling on food 47 16.1.08 Beijing has 295,000 12 Internet [57) overweight kids 48 16.1.08 China humiliated by Germans 14 MN A/Reuters but chief still confident 49 17.1.08 China, India vow to expand Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua trade, economic cooperation 50 17.1.08 China, Britain to discuss Economic News 5 MNA/Reuters financial turbulence Table 5: List of headlines concerned with China (The New Light ofMyanmar, January 2008) North Korea No. Date Title Section Page News Source No. 1 2.1.08 Leading newspapers in International 10 MNA DPRK issue joint New Year News editorial 2 8.1.08 DPRK blames other International 3 MNA/Xinhua countries" delay in News fulfilling commitments 3 11.1.08 DPRK top leader visits power 13 MNA/Xinhua plant construction site 4 15.1.08 US urged to end hostile International 3 MNA/Xinhua policy toward DPRK News 5 16.1.08 New S Korean leader ready International 7 MNA/Reuters for summit with North News 6 23.1.08 DPRK accuses US of International 4 MNA/Xinhua deploying warplanes in S News Korea 7 24.1.08 S Korea suggests further eco Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua ties with Russia, DPRK 8 25.1.08 DPRK chief demands to 6 MNA/Xinhua develop software tech faster 9 26.1.08 North Korea tells US to International 3 MNA/Reuters remember the "Pueblo" News 10 18.2.08 DPRK urges US to withdraw International 4 MNA/Xinhua forces from South Korea News 11 DPRK voices strong stand 12 MNA/Xinhua ag;ainst US provocation 12 20.2.08 North Korea says aid holds International 4 MNA/Reuters up disarmament deal News 13 27.2.08 N Korea says US-South drill 12 MNA/Reuters could hurt N-talks 14 29.2.08 S Korea, DPRK fail to agree 14 MNA/Xinhua on World Cup qualifier 15 8.3.08 German auto part plant to Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua operate in DPRK's Kaesong 16 20.3.08 DPRK vows to boost friendly International 4 Xinhua cooperation with Russia News (58] 17 23.3.08 DPRK, Russia to jointly to 15 MNA/Xinhua implement Khasan-Rajin . railway Table 6: List of headlines concerned with North Korea( The New Light of Myanmar, January 2008) Other Countries No. Date Title Section Page News Source No. 1 1.1.08 UK drug giants probed over Economic News 4 Internet bribes to Saddam regime 2 1.. 1.08 Foreign Minister sends Economic News 6 MNA felicitations to Cuba 3 2.1.08 North Korea slams US ahead International 3 MNA/Xinhua of nuclear deadline News 4 2.1.08 Iran ready for N-tech International 3 MNA/Xinhua coop with Egypt News 5 2.1.08 Chart Thai Party confirms International 3 MNA/Xinhua ioining PPP coalition govt News 6 2.1.08 Brazil's Christmas e- Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua commerce rises 55% 7 2.1.08 Tax reform bill approved in Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua Ecuador 8 2.1.08 Tax reform bill approved in Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua Ecuador 9 2.1.08 Peru's exports to hit record Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua high in 2007 10 2.1.08 Japan to back targets for new Advertisement 13 MNA/Xinhua climate deal 11 3.1.08 Senior General Than Shwe Cover page 1 MNA sends message of condolence to King of Thailand 12 3.1.08 Thai monarch pleads for International 3 MNA/Xinhua national stability News 13 3.1.08 Singapore's economy to grow Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua 4.5-6.5% in 2008 14 3.1.08 Canadian PM reiterates Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua economic worries for 2008 15 3.1.08 Peru confiscates 20 tons of 13 MNA/Xinhua drugsin2007 16 4.1.08 Pakistan issues Bhutto killing International 3 MNA/Reuters photos, offers reward News 17 4.1.08 Saudi Crown Prince hopes to International 3 MNA/Xinhua boost ties with China News 18 4.1.08 Israeli Embassy evacuated in International 4 MNA/Reuters Canberra News 19 4.1.08 Israeli economy booms at Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua 5.3% GDP in 2007 [59] 20 4.1.08 Iran, Vietnam ink MoU on Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua commercial cooperation 21 4.1.08 Vietnam to build first 6-star Economic News 5 Internet hotel 22 4.1.08 Bolivia seizes 431 tons of 12 MNA/Xinhua drugs in 2007 23 4.1.08 21,233 arrested for drug 12 MNA/Xinhua trafficking in Costa Rica in '07 24 5.1.08 54 rescued after Chile International 4 MNA/Reuters volcano eruption News 25 5.1.08 Vietnam receives more blood International 4 MNA/Xinhua donations in 2007 News 26 5.1.08 S Korea's exports reach Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua record high in 2007 27 5.1.08 Shanghai airports report Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua double-digit rise in passengers 28 5.1.08 Vietnam's farm export surges Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua last year 29 5.1.08 Indonesia export up 13 % in Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua first 11 months 30 5.1.08 Afghan police seize 400 kilos 12 MNA/Xinhua of heroin 31 5.1.08 Vietnam eyes five mln 13 MNA/Xinhua foreil!Il visitors this year 32 5.1.08 Aids delivered to flood, 13 MNA/Xinhua landslides zones in Indonesia 33 6.1.08 Pakistan bars British envoy International 3 MNA/Reuters seeing detained lawyer News 34 7.1.08 Protesters throw rocks at International 3 MNA/Reuters British base on Cyprus News 35 7.1.08 BBC presenter arrested over International 3 MNA/Reuters fiancee's death News 36 7.1.08 Russians rescued after International 3 MNA/Reuters missing for three months News 37 7.1.08 India not to replicate western International 4 MNA/Xinhua model of industrialization News 38 7.1.08 .Pakistan criticizes Crisis International 4 MNA/Reuters Group for meddling News 39 7.1.08 Britain's energy prices International 4 MNA/Xinhua increased bv double-digits News 40 7.1.08 Thai "stealth coup" threatens International 4 MNA/Reuters PPP victory News 41 7.1.08 German expert says oil prices Economic News 10 MNA/Xinhua likely to double in 10 years 42 7.1.08 S Korea's "TT" exports Economic News 10 MNA/Xinhua increase 43 7.1.08 Vietnam sees record auto Economic News 10 MNA/Xinhua [60) import turnovers in 2007 44 7.1.08 New gas field found in east Economic News 10 MNA/Xinhua Bolivia 45 7.1.08 Britain's manufacturing Economic News 13 MNA/Xinhua growth slows 46 7.1.08 Germany expects lower Economic News 13 MNA/Xinhua economic growth in 2008 47 8.1.08 Bhutto's party to seek UN International 3 MNA/Xinhua probe if wins power News 48 8.1.08 Iran to test fly third International 3 MNA/Xinhua generation of home-built News "Saeqeh" 49 8J.08 Vehicle sales to rise at slower Economic News 5 MNA/Xinhua pace in Brazil this year 50 8.1.08 British journalist forced to 11 MN A/Reuters stop working in Iran Table 7: List of headlines concerned with countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, British, Pakistan, Germany, Iran, Brazil, etc.( The New Light ofMyanmar, January 2008) Firstly, we have to explain that on an average day, news coverage of different countries varies equal, covered so from all the data only 50 entries of each of the country are presented in the tables with an exception for news concerning with North Korea. As we can see from the tables, in the case of the United States, news about the war and the country's problems and disputes with other countries are prioritized to give the readers the impression that the United States is a bullying nation without any regard for its own soldiers and that it is not accepted by other countries as a peaceful nation around the world. This is not the case of China and stories concerning China usually show the Chinese as a responsible and fast developing nation with peaceful ties with Burma and countries in the region. The news concerning China includes topics which are not of particular importance for the local people in Burma, but rather are significant for the people in China instead. To support the point that the bias found in the newspaper towards the United States is quite unique, other news concerning countries such as Russia, Korea, Thailand, Germany, Brazil, Vietnam, [61] and most of the south-east Asian countries are presented here to show that the newspaper can actually also remain neutral. The news sources shown in the table demonstrate that most of the time The New Light of Myanmar takes its materials from the Chinese-owned Xinhua News Service. For the domestic items, MNA or Myanmar News Agency is the one which decides which news should be printed or not. Taking information only from a limited number of sources can be a sign of the government's trust towards them, and in the case of Xinhua, it might be an indicator of the Burmese government's close ties with China. The evidence presented in this chapter clearly shows the bias in reporting news concerning different countries in The New Light ofMyanmar. Media bias can be found everywhere but somehow for most of the time it goes unnoticed because usually newspapers provide both sides of the story, even if one of the sides is prioritized. This is a way persuading people to see the issue the way the press want them to see it but still, the people are given a choice to read more about the topic and both sides of a conflict are shown voicing their opinions. In The New Light of Myanmar, information is revealed only to the point the newspaper owners want it revealed. In other words, by limiting the information the newspaper limits its readers' thinking and controls their minds by channelling them in the direction it wants. In the next chapter, the data presented so far will be analyzed in relation to a propaganda model with a view to reaching a conclusion to this analysis. [62] Chapter (3): Propaganda Analysis As mentioned in the introduction to this thesis, propaganda can be defined as a deliberate attempt to shape understanding of an individual or group of people by manipulating their thinking process and directing behaviour to achieve a response that supports the intent of the propagandist. This can be achieved by the propagandists by providing information which supports their purposes only through the press, radio, television, movies, posters, slogans, billboards, education, or the Internet, depending on how powerful the propagandists are. Logical thinking would lead us to the conclusion that in order to succeed in this purpose, the propagandist must keep bombarding the target audience with propaganda from all different forms of media for years to embed the desired thinking to the point that it becomes part of the people's culture. To analyze propaganda, one must do historical research, examine propaganda messages and media sensitivity to audience responses, and scrutinise the entire propaganda process (Jowett-O'Donnell 269). This is what this chapter aims to achieve in general, but due to the time limitations and the overabundance of information available from the daily issues of The New Light of Myanmar, this thesis focuses only on four years of data. In this chapter, information and facts presented in the previous chapters will be analyzed following a propaganda model developed from Jowett-O'Donnell's propaganda analysis divisions or steps. In addition to the data from Chapter 1 and 2, three editorial articles written on the Armed Forces Day, March 27 are analyzed as [63] well. To explain the propaganda model used in the chapter, Jowett-O'Donnell's propaganda analysis steps will be explained briefly. First published in 1986, Jowett-O'Donnell's Propaganda and Persuasion was written in hope to encourage students to take interest in propaganda analysis. The authors devised a 10-step model that could be used when analyzing propaganda: ( 1) The ideology and purpose of the propaganda campaign; (2) The context in which the propaganda occurs; (3) Identification of the propagandist; (4) The structure of the propaganda organization; ( 5) The target audience; ( 6) Media utilization techniques; (7) Special techniques to maximize effect; (8) Audience reaction to various techniques; (9) Counterpropaganda, if present; and (10) Effects and evaluations (270). As we can see the model has not necessarily been made for a specific propaganda study but rather to analyze any system which is considered to be propaganda. Jowett and O'Donnell provided four case studies: Women and war, Gulf War, and two corporate propaganda analyses on smoking and drugs; and analyzed them using the model, accordingly. In the case of this thesis, while the steps quoted above can be applicable to analyzing The New Light of Myanmar, a slightly different model has been developed by adding, rearranging and combining some of the steps to better suit the specific case of this examination. The main difference between the presented model and the Jowett-O'Donnell's model is that the first one has been created for studying specifically only one medium in which propaganda appears, whereas the latter focuses on different media but targeting one area of interest only. [64) Some of the steps have been combined to facilitate their analysis and avoid redundancy, as many of the discussed areas overlap. The developed model consists of 4 steps and the steps are as follows: (1) Ownership and identification of the propagandist; (2) Context, ideology and purpose; (3) Propaganda techniques; (4) Target audience; and (5) Effects of the propaganda techniques used in The New Light ofMyanmar. The main objective of the first step is to identify the propagandist from the economical and political point of view. The source of propaganda is likely to be an institution or organization, with the propagandist as its leader or agent (Jowett and O'Donnell 273). In this case, the identity of the propagandist is quite open and easy to identify due to three facts. The first fact is that The New Light of Myanmar has been a state-run newspaper since its production in 1941, going through a name change from Working People's Daily in 1993. It is no secret that it is funded by government rather than from commercial advertising, as the only advertisements we see are related directly to the government (see the samples provided in Chapter 1). The second fact, also based on the information presented in Chapter 1, is that domestic issues are taken from one source only, Myanmar News Agency (MNA) and not from private-owned news agencies, if there are any. The third fact is that the domestic news features, again as seen in Chapter 1, describe high-ranking military officials on a daily basis as people of authority who are taking part in opening ceremonies, making inspections and giving instructions in all sectors relating to the domestic issues. By looking at these three items, we can conclude safely that the propagandist is the government that owns [65) and funds the newspaper and has enough power to influence the newspaper's choices in news selection and editorial matters. The newspaper is merely an agent set out to perform the duty assigned to it by the military government. Here, it is important to clarify that the term "military government" encompasses only a handful of the powerful high-ranking military officials and does not include the entire army. With the propagandist identified, the next step is for us to understand what exactly is the ideology and purpose behind the propaganda in The New Light of Myanmar. We will start by looking at the context in which the propaganda occurs. As mentioned before, any analysis of propaganda requires historical research and a clear understanding of the intent of the propagandist. In this paper, the research focused on the material from four years only and at this point we need to clarify the context of the materials gathered. Firstly, propaganda can be instilled in any form of media or at least in more than one type of media at the same time. Especially in a country with a rigid and totalitarian regime, such as Burma, propaganda can be found in all possible forms of communication with the public: radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, movies, posters, billboards, group activities and any other demonstrations of ideological strength. For the sake of clarity, this thesis focuses only on one government-run and government funded print medium, the daily newspaper, The New Light ofMyanmar. To find out the ideology and purpose of The New Light of Myanmar's propaganda, we have to look back on the information presented in the first chapter. As we can see from the presentation of the news coverage of the referendum, even during the time of a natural disaster there were 29 news articles with big headlines [66] which asked people not only to vote, but to vote "YES" in the referendum. The editorials at that time also urged people to vote "YES." Also pictures of soldiers helping people remove debris and trees from the roads were printed in great numbers. Before the referendum, it seems the newspaper was too busy to headline the storm warning and help the general public take precautions. After the cyclone Nargis, the government did not postpone the referendum to give priority to the restoration of order. On the contrary, the newspaper stated that the country has already returned back to normal without mentioning any specific number of death toll or the exact regions which were affected. Judging from this information we can suggest that the purpose of the military propaganda is to make use of every situation to whitewash the image of the military as a whole and also to enforce the opinion that in order to keep the nation strong, all the patriotic people have the duty to vote "Yes" in the referendum and if they do not do so the will be seen as traitors. What can be seen in this situation is that, even at a time of a natural disaster, the only thing the government wants to focus on is the referendum and every other event is utilised to support that purpose. To strengthen the argument that the ideology and purpose of The New Light of Myanmar's propaganda campaign is to empower the military rule without giving much choice to the people, let us look at three editorial articles written in 2006, 2008 and 2009 on 27 March, which is the Armed Forces Day in Burma. Firstly, let us examine the editorial article, "Fine National Political Tradition of Tatmadaw" (official Burmese term meaning the military or the armed forces) with the [67] subheading, "Nation will be strong only when Tatmadaw is strong," written by Kaytu Nilar on 27 March 2006 to celebrate the 61 81 Anniversary of the Armed Forces Day. Honourina the 6lst Anniversary Armed F orus Day: Fine national political traditions of 'ratn1adaw Figure 21: The headline for the editorial. article which appeared on 27 March 2006 The article was written on the 6lst Anniversary of the Armed Forces Day in Burma which is March 27. This article has been chosen for analysis for two reasons. The first reason is quite simple: because it is the anniversary of the Armed Forces, the government will undoubtedly want the newspaper to write editorial articles in support of its aims. The second reason is based on the first one: because editorial articles are expected to mention the military government's good points, the articles will either clearly state or hint the purpose and ideology of the government or the propagandist. From reading the text, the first obvious observation is that the author has no personality. There is no reference made to him or her in the text at all. The author seems to be detached from the article dealing only with facts, such as dates and numbers, and incidents which happened in the past. The author's tone seems to be consistent throughout the article. The article is written with a mixed purpose of providing information and justification of the military government's intermissions in the turbulent history of post-colonial Burma. From the stylistic point of view, the second obvious fact about the article is the usage of the terms, "Armed Forces" and "Tatmadaw." Firstly, the term "Tatmadaw" is a Burmese word and it is undoubtly used in the original Burmese [68] language article but in the translated English article, the decision not to use the English term instead seems a deliberate choice. In the entire article, the term "Tatmadaw" is used 42 times ancl the term "Armed Forces" is used only one time as seen in the headline .Perhaps this was done for no specific reason at all, but it is also reasonable to assume that, the article expects its readers to be familiar with the term or to find out what the word means, if the reader is not familiar with the Burmese language. If we find this word choice deliberate, it is easy to speculate about the reason why the Burmese word is preferred. The term "armed forces" is a rather strong phrase that brings to mind an image of weapons or any objects capable of hurting people. Additionally, the word "forces" has a connotation of something large or a group of people that has the power to crush anything. These two words carry much stronger meaning and image in English than the Burmese term does. In Burmese, the term does give the readers an image of men carrying weapons but it does not sound as harsh as the English phrase, which might be the reason why the Burmese term is preferable. If we follow this line of thinking a possible explanation of why the term Tatmadaw is used in the article might be that the government would not like the readers to think of the military as of the negative entity. In addition, the main theme of the article can be interpreted as the Tatmadaw's vital role in national and political spheres. We can see that from looking at the vocabulary used in the article and especially at the words paired together. The first pair we can frequently see in the article is the term "Tatmadaw" together with the words "national," "political," or "traditions" and "independence." For example, in the [69) first paragraph of the article, "The Tatmadaw has stood magnificently as a strong national force since its birth[ ... ] Tatmadaw's leadership roles in the national politics as a strong national force," or in the second paragraph, "The Tatmadaw is endowed with fine and significant traditions in the political sphere." And to provide more examples, in the third paragraph, "At that time, the Tatmadaw's national objective was independence, which was one and only objective.," in the ninth paragraph, "This indicated that the Tatmadaw could uphold the national political tradition that the Tatmadaw and the people always remained united," in the fifteenth paragraph,"[ ... ] the Tatmadaw discharged national political duties fully as the Caretaker Government" and so on. The entire article is included in the appendix. Relating the word combinations used together with the term Tatmadaw, one possible way of understanding the purpose of the text is that the article tries to relate the Tatmadaw in the national and political spheres by naturalising the thinking that the role of the military is not necessarily limited to being a force of protection from the outside intruders but also from domestic problems, and that this role also extends to governing the country on a political level. This is the purpose of the article and basically the purpose of all the propaganda presented in the newspaper. A similar conclusion can also be reached when thinking of the context of the article. From the beginning of the article, the author uses the term Tatmadaw, the military, which consists of thousands of soldiers seen as a single unit. In addition to that, the author refers to the Tatmadaw as to a person, e.g. "The Tatmadaw has stood magnificently ... ," "The Tatmadaw is endowed with fine and significant traditions ... ," "[ ... ] Tatmadaw's national political traditions," "Later, the Tatmadaw exposed [70) the mastermind of ... " and so on throughout the article. This makes us wonder who is included when the term Tatmadaw is used - is it the entire military force or is it only a specific group of people? To think that the entire army achieved all these is oversimplifying the structure of the military and also making a rather bold statement saying that the numerous soldiers included either do not have opinions or their opinions are not taken into account. In the fourth paragraph of the article, the author writes that independence was the Tatmadaw's national objective and in the sixth paragraph, the article states that Myanmar became independent on 4 January. This is all true except that it is not the entire picture. Before Burma got its independence, there was no official Burmese military force in the country. People from all walks of life took part in the fight for independence, which is why March 27 was originally named the National Resistance Day of Burma. The name was changed to the Armed Forces Day in 1958 under the Socialist government whose leader was a general. The former name was more accurate as it uses the word "national" to indicate that the day belongs to all the people in Burma, while the latter term makes it appear that the fighting was done by the Tatmadaw only without the help of the people, which is impossible. This fact adds to the analysis of the ideology which is donned by the propagandist. It is that, as mentioned earlier, the propagandist makes use of any situation to profit their campaign on keeping the ruling power with the military elite, even if it involves stretching the truth or leave out details which can question their motives and claims. In another thread of the article, the author accuses the British government of causing all the ethnic problems after their departure. The author writes, "[ ... ] owing [71] f to the wedge driven by British colonialists, racism, suspicions among national races, dogmatism of leftist Burma Community Party (BCP) ... " to clearly state that the any civil unrest in the country happened because of the British. It is true to say that the British colonialist government failed to lay a good foundation to build a modern nation state of Burma. But it is also grossly opportunistic to blame the British for sowing the seed of mistrust and animosity among the ethnic groups in Burma. Although it was never the conscious objective of British imperialist to imbue the concept of nation, democracy and freedom, the British education system and being invaded opened up people's eyes to the value of democracy and freedom. After the departure of the British, just like in any other state emerging out of the colonial rule, the young national government was weak and inexperienced, politically and administratively, which led to the some of the worst civil wars in Burma. But as we can read from the article, whenever there was a war, instead of helping the civilian government gain control over the troubled regions, the Tatmadaw took over the power. After becoming a provisional government, the military did not return the power to the civilian government after the 1990 elections. This is also not discussed in length in the article. Only one sentence is mentioned about the issue, "On 27 May 1990, it held multi-party democracy elections." The following sentence does not relate to the previous one. From all the above, we can conclude that the possible purpose of this article is to reflect that the present government does not need to return the power to a civilian government because civilian governments were given the chance to rule the country [72] in the past and failed. And since the military had to take over to save the country more than once, this justifies the fact that they should stay in power. At the end of the article, the author wrote: "At the National Convention, discussions are being held on basic principles and detailed basic principles to be included in the State Constitution, [ ... ] that is essential for the building of a future state." This is a reference to the referendum mentioned in Chapter 1. Since the article was written in 2006, we can see that the government has been planning the referendum on the new constitution at least since 2006 and the ideology which the article is hinting on is to ensure that the military plays a vital role in building the future state. This assumption might become more believable after we analyze the newspaper articles written on March 27 in 2008 and 2009. 2007 is a gap because the English language version of the newspaper was not available from the source. The articles written in 2008 and 2009 have similar structure and they will be studied together. Both articles are factual and graphic without using many words. In both articles, a table showing the developments in the country since 1988 (the year when the present government took over the role as a provisional government), is compared with the present years. The table presented in 2008 focuses on the progress in the communication sector in the time of the "Tatmadaw Government." It states the number of post offices, telegraph offices, telephone offices, microwave services, internet and satellite channels and stations and compares them to their non-existence or low numbers during 1988. The second table basically does the same thing as the first table but the subjects have changed to the number of earth, gravel, or tarred roads [73] being made, the number of new bridges, health care centres, dams, canals, forest reservations, nurseries, livestock breeding farms, TV stations, post offices and telephone offices, once again given in comparison with 1988 again. The tables are shown below. Nalionlllili'J fouth Rnonrre D,.·,lopm1nt DtgrN Collf!p (l'angon} nrablishrd for broaihni111 th# hori Figure 22: Tables shown in the articles written in The New Light of Myanmar on 27 March 2009 and 2008 It is true that a picture, or in this case, a table is worth a thousand words. In this case, it is plain to see that the government wants the readers of The New Light of Myanmar to notice that it has been performing tasks to develop the country in various sectors by showing the developments in figures. This definition of development is debatable one can always ask about the legitimacy of the numbers. In this case, the credibility of the data is easily questioned, as we see when we compare the areas highlighted in red: the number of post offices is vastly different. In the first table, there were no post [74] offices at all in 1988 which is already a very unusual fact, but in the second table, there were suddenly 1114 post offices. It is true that the first table does not include border areas but the article does not specify the exact border areas it talks about. Also if there were no post offices in border areas at all, how did people who lived there receive and send posts before 1988? As a conclusion, in the continuation part of the 2008 article, the newspaper provided pictures from the opening of the Zoological Garden in the new capital, Nay Pyi Taw. The article shows pictures of all animals in the zoo. The question that needs to be asked here is how the building of new bridges, telephone offices and gardens translates into the country's development? What does it do for the people? Does it relate to education, improving economy or building a modern nation? What percentage of these facilities is being utilized by the general public? If so, how much is the government charging for the use of these facilities? These questions cannot be answered from reading the above articles, and it is plain to see that the newspaper features the only developments in the country no other issues relating to the problems occurring in the country. From what we know, these so called developments might not even be aimed at helping the people at all but rather at helping the government. If essential questions like these are not being answered, then I believe it is safe to say that the articles like the ones analysed are not meant to inform the general public of their country's developments at all. In addition to everything that has been said here, let us take a look at Table 2 from Chapter 1 now. The table, as explained before lists the topics of the editorial articles written within the last four years. The articles are divided into different [75) categories, which are: National Convention, The Constitution and the Seven-Step Road Map, Educational Articles, Awards and Ceremonies, Press Conferences, Showcases of Developments within the States and Divisions, Government Policies on ASEAN and Neighbouring countries, Articles Discriminating Against Specific Opposition Leaders and Western News Agencies, and Intentionally Chosen Historical Facts to Support the Government's Actions. (For more details about what is included under each topic see Chapter 1). In the table, the number of articles written within four years which falls under these categories shows 1440 editorial articles in total. 348 of them were written for the National Convention, 263 were urging to support the Constitution and the Seven Step Road Map plan made by the government, 217 articles were criticising opposition leaders (especially Daw Aung San Suu Kyi), Western news agencies and Western countries, 139 articles were on Government Policies on ASEAN and neighbouring countries, and 10 articles showcased the developments in States and Divisions under this government. Out of all these articles, only 57 were educational or relating to education system. (See Chapter 1 for details). From these numbers we can see that almost all the articles in The New Light of Myanmar are written to reflect the government's policies and plans. Another form of publication which helps to support the purpose and ideology of the propagandist are the slogans and objectives which have been included in the newspaper for over 20 years. Firstly, the objectives, such as in the figure shown below, are one of the many slogans which have appeared in The New Light of Myanmar daily for over seven years. These objectives were written supposedly for [76) the nation as whole, which makes it difficult to believe because it is impossible for an entire nation full of people from different levels of society, from different ranks of life to want the same things, especially concerning politics and economy. According to the objectives all the people in Burma want the same thing. This might be telling us that the government wants all the people to want what they want, regardless of whether the consent of people is given willingly or not. This may well be the ideology behind the propaganda - to make people accept everything the government says just because these things appear to be accepted by the majority. Four politkal obj.ctlws Fllur economk objectives Fow sodal objedins . M:•\Uifr of tJae. Siar., eOJ11.111.uait}" pea« . D.T.i.,.....rtof •gricukan"' dN ...... d ...... do..!op- . t'pUft of tit• morale nd mo.r111lity of tb• ••d traaq•iW.ty, prn-ahacit of law aatl mm of odaer lfttm'1 of tit. HOllOllll' as wd Rtitt aado-• order . Proptt .volaria of tln marbt-orio:tN RODOmk 'IY•tem . Cplift of natioaal ~dp ad bttq;rlty aad . X•rioul rROatolidatioa . n.v.lopm.ur of&. «0901D}' hl'ririaf p.artirip:adoa ia twm1 pn:t•rvatioa and u1f.,aardi111 of c-ultaral . Eaur1•an af a •t:W eudiari•& &nte C:oa- .t' t.C'lukWaJ bow-how .aad inn1tmat fntm to'W'fft iadd.e ll:trit.ap oad. aadn•I ('•ar.rtn ltit.atioa tH COUh'y asd abroad . Uplift of ~'llAIDicm of patrietk -.pirit . Buildia1of • Hwm.odft'adenlopd utiaa . IUiakladve co S:lu:p• tbeaafiamlHOllOJD}. auutbe-bptin tll• . rp111l of ltultlli'!' fitDMl aad .Uution i• attonl ma. rU uw SUin Coalfhluioa. lwubo! .... s-ud!MudoulpooplH ~taaWarcb of ti.~ -nre natloa Figure 23: One of the many slogans included everyday in The New Light ofMyanmar fost as the objectives above, these slogans (shown below) or exhortations are carried in all the issues of The New Light ofMyanmar. PEOPLE'S DESIRE • Oppose those relying on external elements, acting as stooges, holding negative views • Oppose those trying to jeopardize stability of the State and progress of the nation • Oppose foreign nations interfering in internal affairs of the State • Crush all internal and external destructive elements as the common enemy Let us now turn to the propaganda techniques used in The New Light of Myanmar. This is the third step of the model and it is most important for this thesis because it makes use of all the information presented in the first two chapters and tries to determine which propaganda techniques are used. This step will also support [77] the main argument of the thesis which is to prove that The New Light ofMyanmar is a propaganda tool used by the powerful small elite to influence the public by showing that the newspaper does use propaganda, which is the reason why we can find these different techniques in the material analysed. Before the techniques are defined, their origin and names should be discussed briefly. All the referenced techniques have been taken from a variety of sources and only the common ones, present in all the sources, have been taken into account. The first source is the Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA), established in 1937, with the objective to help the general public understand more about the propaganda techniques used upon them. IP A suspended its operations in 1942 and a new organization, an online source called The Propaganda Critic ( Light of Myanmar falls under, these three sources are taken into account in parallel. Some of the techniques are present in all the three sources. In the case when some techniques are overlapping the one which fits the best will be chosen. We will now define the techniques used in the newspaper. A wide variety of techniques, sometimes overlapping, were found in the news presented in Chapter 1, 2 and the editorials written in The New Light ofMyanmar. The first technique is known as the assertion technique, taken from the IP A. Assertion refers to an enthusiastic and energetic statement which is used without explanation or backup and which the readers are expected to accept without any question (IPA online ). In The New Light of [78] Myanmar, assertion technique can be seen in slogans and headlines. Examples are - "Emergence of the State Constitution is the duty of all citizens of Myanmar Naing Ngan" or "To approve the State Constitution is a national duty of the entire people today. Let us all cast "Yes" vote in the national interest." These messages appeared in The New Light of Myanmar from 1 May 2008 until the end of the voting period, 10 May 2008. These messages used phrases such as, "national interest" and "national duty." It is clear that in any civilized society there are certain expectations that people are supposed to fulfil in order to be a good citizen who wants what is best for the country. Such valued have been embedded in all of us through our education systems since we were young. The messages carried by the newspaper have been phrased in such a way as to tell the readers that if they do not do as the statement says, they will break one of the basic social rules and neglect their duty as a citizen. The next technique found often in The New Light of Myanmar is the bandwagon technique, where people are convinced to join the crowd because other people have already done so (Propaganda Critic online). This technique is found usually in domestic news articles. For example, on 26 April 2008, a news article titled, "Billboards set up in Yangon South District to hail Referendum" was included in the newspaper to urge the people to join others who have already accepted the referendum. Another technique found in the editorial part of the newspaper is the plain folk technique. It is a technique where people with plain names assuming to be an ordinary person are doing the convincing. This technique is quite popular in The New [79) Light of Myanmar during specific seasons, such as the National Convention and the Constitution voting seasons. A sample article can be seen on 27 April 2008 with the title, "True heart of a Union" written by A Reader. The plain folk technique is usually used together with testimonials. Another example is - "The Most opportune time to take off' by A Pensioner written on 2 May 2008. One last example is - "No place for saboteurs in new nation to be built in accord with new constitution " by Maung De Doh. This article is written as a conversation between the author and his uncle, Bagyi Toe, which is a common name in villages. This article is a cross between the plain folk technique and the next technique, pinpointing the enemy. This technique is usually found in the international news section. As we have seen in Chapter 2, the Western countries, especially the United States of America, are pinpointed as rather unpleasant nations in conflict with other countries. This is done so by choosing only specific news relating to the country. Pinpointing the enemy is used to simplify things for the general public by giving them a black and white reason why someone should be labelled "bad." The most common place where this technique is seen are the slogans, such as - '< Rl:A, VOA and UDC airing skyful of lies ,'f IU'A, VOA and BBC saboteurs, watch your step! ~'< Tbe public he warned of kille1·s in the ab· waves - RFA, VOA and BBC Figure 24:0ne of the slogans which appears on some days of The New Light ofMyanmar (26 February 2008) The next technique which is used abundantly in The New Light ofMyanmar is the testimonial technique. Below are shown the testimonials which appeared in The New Light ofMyanmar. [80] Magway Division USDA will constantly parlicipate in the drive fo1· equitable development, peace and stability and seven-step Road Map Figure 25: A headline of an editorial article in The New Light of Myanmar on 21 November 2007. Mongkaung Special Force Annoancemt11t Lrtttr :\"o. 0010/ Ta Wa Rai 2007 Datt: 15 :'iortmber 2007 Monglaoag Special FOlce ""' focmed an 10!we1983 wi!h the mmof mwrin!~ security, thuule of law andiegianal dovelllplllllll. In adduioo. uim Ibo leadenhip of the Tallllldaw. we 11n;orkiag rog Figure 26:A testimonial made against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on 15 Nov 2007 Announcement of national race delegates from Shan State (East) to National Convention Dair: !l No,.mib.J· 2007 Altcgetbefovel'IOOOna11ooal1-acedelegatesfromJ25toWD>bip•mlbecounltyatteadedlhefllC.,...n,ny-completedNatl«la!Couv<111ionandeighl~ I!'""!" participated in the discu!MODS. Out ofthe eight~ groups, tho de~ l!""'I' ofnational"""'' comp.tU8 641 doleg:ii.. anditi• !ht IM!"'f in number A total of29 delepte> from Shan State ~•t) partu:ipoted m the di.seussm of the~ gioup of oational lllCe'l. We \W the~ between Minitl!t fur Relations U Aaug Kyi and Daw •.\nng San SuuKyi •• fQ'iliv• """"' to national t'rcomcli.dotim MrGambori. spoaal ad\,._,. to tht Uni! These are only some of the abundant examples found in The New Light of Myanmar and if all the slogans, articles, news stories, and poems were to be included, this thesis would have been extremely thick. Because these materials relate to a single step in a model, only limited information is presented here. But more details can be found in Chapters 1 and 2. For any propagandist to achieve its goals a specific audience must be chosen. The propaganda message is aimed at the audience most likely to be useful to the [81) propagandist, if it responds favourably (Jowett and O'Donnell 275). We can try to determine the possible target audience of The New Light of Myanmar by looking at the level of difficulty of language and vocabulary usage, the jargon used, if any, the sentence structure of the editorial articles and the overall context in which these sentences occur. Since this thesis has a time constraint we will only look at the available information used therein . . Based on the analysis made in previous steps, it can be revealed that the target audience is assumed to be foreigners who have extensive knowledge on Burma and also the mass public who can read and understand English at a more than average level. The reasons for such claims can be given in reference to the sentence structure used in the editorial articles. From the sentence structure, it appears that the target audience needs to have more than average knowledge of English. The editorial and news articles use complex vocabulary and long sentence structure which can be difficult for new learners of English to understand. The vocabulary used in The New Light of Myanmar is politically-oriented and might not be commonly found in textbooks used by students in Burma. The length of the sentences, especially in the editorial articles is substantial. Moreover, sometimes the articles might carry concepts which can be difficult for young people to grasp or understand. Also the jargon used in the editorial articles, such as the usage of Burmese names, or the usage of commonplace man technique as mentioned in step 3 can add to the fact that to understand these articles fully, one would have to have more than a basic knowledge of Burma. The last fact and the most important one, in the foreign news section of The New Light of (82) Myanmar, the Western countries, especially and mostly the United States are depicted as untrustworthy while China is shown as the complete opposite of the States. Such descriptions seem to be aimed at the countries concerned to show that within Burma, foreign powers can be anything the newspaper wants them to be. These are the reasons why one part of the target audience is assumed to be the foreigners with extensive background knowledge on Burma. . On the other hand, when we look at the domestic news articles, and all the slogans (see Chapter l and 2 for details) included in The New Light of Myanmar, we can see that the newspaper is aimed at the mass public of Burma. The sentence structure in news and editorial articles might be lengthy and the ambiguities might be difficult to grasp for both younger and older generation with limited English reading skills, especially the young generation lacking knowledge of the full history of Burma, but perhaps this is part of the intention. Additionally, daily weather forecasts and television schedules and major event announcements are evidently aimed at the readers inside Burma, while also letting the readers outside the country to have a basic idea of what is going on inside the country. Based on all the above, the target audience is believed to consist of foreigners and general public inside and outside the country. Factors such as what the readers understand from reading these newspapers and the availability of the newspaper both inside and outside the country have a result on the effects of the propaganda, which is the last step of the model and the last part of the analysis in this thesis. Approaching the effectiveness of propaganda, there has to be a clear distinction between effectiveness and involuntary effects (Ellul 259). The objective of (83) this step of the model is not to give a black and white answer evaluating whether the described propaganda campaign was successful or not. This would be impossible to do here, since we are examining only one type of dissemination medium. As said before, propaganda is total and to study its effects properly one must look at all the sources of propaganda messages from all the possible media. In the case of this thesis, the final step is meant to show the possible outcomes of the propaganda by referring to the information presented and analyzed before. Firstly, we know for a fact that people were urged to vote "Yes" in the referendum and that the results show that 98% of the population voted in support of the constitution. From the information provided in Chapters 1 and 2, especially from the editorial articles, we know that daily news was quite similar in contents and preferences. Editorial article topics also highlight the government's achievements and the articles usually speak for the entire nation. Interesting news topics found in most newspapers in other countries, .such as the domestic economic situation, the government's plans for healthcare issues, education system, murders and crimes, and lighter topics such as travel documentaries, festivals, interviews with famous people in the country are very rarely included. Also, when these topics are mentioned, there is never any criticism of any sort to these issues and the articles are found be highly agreeable to the government. Yet the referendum results were shown to be nearly 100% which gives us a reasonable doubt and makes even the reader who has no knowledge on Burma to question the freedom of the press in the country. In addition to that logic, we also have to ask the question, what other media are available to the [84) people. If there are none, there is a big chance that the newspaper can brainwash the people after a certain period of time. The fact that the propagandist wanted the public to accept the referendum and the 98% acceptance it received indicate that the desired result was achieved and shows us that the propaganda is working to a certain extent. But on the other hand, it is arguable whether the newspaper alone is responsible for this. Yet again, there is no proof that the numbers were not tampered with. Let us assume for the sake of argument that the results have been tampered with and that there are people who do not accept this. In that case we could rightly expect some kind of act to counter the propaganda. One way to counter the propaganda in the newspaper is to write sentences which might be ambiguous and open to interpretation. For example, in the article analyzed earlier, "Fine national political traditions of Tatmadaw," the author included some sentences which should not be included as they stand out and make the readers question the validity of the very subject the author is trying to argue. This might or might not be intended, but assuming it to be intended, it could be seen as an attempt to counter the propaganda. There might be other types of counter-propaganda present in other forms of media and they might even take bolder stances, but they are not discussed here. Unfortunately, the model employed for the sake of the thesis comes short in analysing the last step. If the thesis covered more media, then this last step could be more thoroughly explored. This chapter has attempted to provide the reasons why we could evaluate The New Light of Myanmar in terms of a propaganda tool used by the powerful elite to [85) serve their purposes by making use of all the information gathered in Chapter 1 and 2. The chapter also was organised based on a model developed from Jowett- 0 'Donnell's 10 steps to analyze propaganda (Jowett and O'Donnell 270). The model has it constraints and benefits for this specific analysis. While it does not have the capability to highlight the effects of propaganda in one type of media it allows the reader to see the actual examples of techniques used in The New Light of Myanmar and also to identify the propagandist and his purpose and ideology, and the target audience. The model can be used for further study which will encompass more types of media, and this thesis can serve as a basis for analyzing propaganda for the print media in the cases similar to Burma. [86] Conclusion In this thesis it has been argued that The New Light ofMyanmar is a propaganda tool used by the government to disseminate selected information to serve the purpose of distilling some ideologies to affect the way people think and perceive certain issues. I have based my analysis on information taken from the newspaper. The first chapter have given some insight into how the domestic news is chosen and combined with government slogans and exhortations present in the newspaper every day to show that the newspaper compromises its integrity as a government information deliverer. In the second chapter, the differences in reporting about friendly and unfriendly states have been presented demonstrating the obvious bias of the newspaper. The last chapter has analysed the selected materials using a propaganda model developed from Jowett and O'Donnell's propaganda analysis methods. Whatever we say, one thing is obvious: newspapers play an important role shaping both history and the present. If a person wants to know more about a country, its government and its relationship with other countries, one method is to start by reading the official newspaper of the country. We can learn a lot by observing the topics included and not included, and the language used, as it will somehow reflect on those who have the power to influence the country. More than that, an experienced reader can easily form an opinion about the political and economic situation, or education system of that country. The government's priorities and underlying intentions can also be revealed by reading an official newspaper of a country. This fact is very important for analysts concentrating on countries such as Burma, which [87) do not have too many news sources apart from the official ones. This is what makes this thesis an achievement for me because it has provided me with an ability to read the newspaper of my country with an open mind, because even at its worst, when it appears to tell nothing, it tells us something. We only have to know where and how to look. Putting this thesis into a bigger context, its findings can hopefully serve as a basis of further research projects on propaganda analysis in the media in countries with similar circumstances as Burma, or even doing more research on Burma's journalistic standards, or on propaganda in other media, such as films, posters, billboards, radio, television, slogans and printed press from the private-owned sector. It is also hoped that this thesis has allowed its readers to see at least a glimpse of what's behind the closed doors of a totalitarian state. It is my hope that this thesis will serve as a starting point for bigger projects in analyzing propaganda in other types of media in Burma, and making comparisons among different propaganda methods and journalistic standards between the private and government-owned newspapers, and other media such as television, films, radio and other types of print media. Research on the history of Burma's newspapers and comparative studies on the past and the present-day newspapers published in different times and under different governments can also be undertaken in the future. It is hoped that this thesis can become a small portion of broader and much more in-depth analysis concerning The New Light ofMyanmar. Lastly, I would like to conclude by stating what I have learned from writing this thesis. The first thing I have learned is that even dealing with a newspaper article [88) full of assumed propaganda materials, there are many ways to read a text and that even if the text appears to be written for a specific purpose it can never be confined to one way of reading and interpreting only, not even in the case of a simple news article. The second thing is the importance of silence. Silence of opinions, and silence in the coverage of certain news is also making a statement. In the kind of newspaper such as The New Light of Myanmar which operates under strict censorship rules and suffers from tight control concerning which contents can or cannot be published, the silence or the omissions speak louder than the propaganda the news and the editorials try to portray. The silence itself is a form of counter-propaganda. The third and the last thing is the fact that propaganda is and always will be all around us and although propaganda cannot be considered a crime, it may come very close to it, depending on the methods used to follow up on it and the severity with which these methods are implemented. Most newspapers, advertisements and research papers aim to persuade their audiences by giving them reasons and statistics but this is still persuasion because the readers are provided with choices. Propaganda can become a crime if it is practiced to make people stop thinking and when choice is not given to the readers any more. In short, propaganda will always be there but at the very least people should be given the right to choose what they believe in because to have an opinion of one's own is to be human. References [89] Online Burma Library. 24 Nov. 2006. Asian Studies. Online Burma Library.28 Dec.2008. 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The Australian. 27 September 2007 < http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/02248745 8-2873 7 ,00.html> "Video shows Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai being shot deliberately". Times Online. 28 Sep. 2007 < http://www.timesonline.co. uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2550369 .ece> Embassy of People's Republic of China in India. "Backgrounder: Five Principles of peaceful co-existence". 14 June 2004 Lixin, Geng. The Culture Mandala, Vol. 7 no. 2. Sino-Myanmar Relations: Analysis and Prospects. December 2006. Propaganda Critic. 1 October 2009 [91] r 'f. ' Appendices 6 nm NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR Mrnlday, 27 Mll!ch. 2006 The Tatmadaw has stood maftlllkently a• a (8) gJapples with banlships of tho 11111ion as period of three month• ofter independenoe wu altung natiomU ft.Yee since its birth. In reaJity. the national duty in times of emergency after repined Tutmadaw · • leader:.ttip role in llw national politics the m.ttion hus reguined iudep:llli:n«. 1lten. wmed insurgea9 rei1ned iruprenr U!I u fllT\lllg nat.km:al ft'lr(.C is not llb ~mwlhing (9) has decisively disd1W'ged nutiooul politi. throughout the nati<>n. The authority <>f 1h<• AFPFL k10ted from olher~ nor one created. bur was be cal duties withou:l bhn towards any pm.1)'. Government took cfk'"l in the area of 50-mile m stCM'ed f'('I it att-C'l'diag __,, 1.he historical require organiZ'aiion or lodivid\l:at in the interests dius of Yangon. Therefore, foreign Df'WSJ'B_fle'R m